I went back to the place where I discovered the barrier.

"Explico magicis obice." 

I tried to look more carefully and closely at the barrier again, but I didn't find out anything new.

"Vi aer ignis aqua spiritu quaseo obice laxo." 

I tried to break the barrier, but nothing happened.

I noticed a weak part, but my magic wasn't powerful enough to break it. I let out a big, disappointing sigh and remembered what Akois said. This was a test, and I had to dispel the ice magic. He knew I couldn't dispel the barrier, but if I dispel the ice magic, it could serve as a condition to break the magic barrier naturally, by itself. Maybe I was approaching the problem in the wrong direction at first. I wanted to unfreeze everyone after I found a doctor because I thought it would be best to show them how I found them. I worried that a longer period of unfreezing could have a bad impact on the reanimation, but I guess I'll just have to act quickly after I unfreeze everything and everyone.

"Dona mihi ignis."

Nothing happened.

"Dona mihi ignis!"

Again, nothing happened.

Strange. Something was terribly wrong. I never failed in casting magic, especially fire magic. Flames would come out naturally whenever I wanted. Maybe I didn't have enough focus.

"Dona mihi flamma ignis spiritus!!!"

I started sweating and felt like I was on fire, but I couldn't materialize any flame.

I focused well, and my incantations were perfect, yet something completely blocked my magic. The option that I lost my magic was impossible. For starters, I don't know if one could actually lose magic. I read about it, in a myth about an old, evil witch, but there were extraordinary conditions required and none of them applied to me. The other option was that something blocked my magic, but I didn't have the slightest idea what could that be. Blocking magic with a spell didn't seem likely to me. I didn't encounter any strange objects that could absorb magic. In the mansion, during my battle with Akios, I used magic without a problem. Maybe if I go back inside, I could cast magic again.

I went back to the mansion. Only me and the frozen sculptures were present.

"Dona mihi ignis!"

A weak flame appeared.

I managed to cast magic, but it was weaker than I wanted. I walked around as I tried to clear my head of all thoughts and I focused on the essence of flames.

"Dona mihi ignis."

A flame of the desired size showed up. It extinguished quickly because I called it forth as a test.

"Dona mihi ignis."

Again, a weak flame appeared.

Since I nervously paced around, I found myself at the position where I called forth my first weak fire. Maybe the location mattered. I didn't know the reason for it, but when I tested this theory, it turned out to be completely true. I walked around the mansion, calling forth my flames to see where they could be the strongest. The flames' strength guided me upstairs to the main study, where Leo was frozen. Maybe Leo's connection to the fire spirit concentrated my magic there. 

Either way, I had no other choice, so I began my fire incantation in the mansion. To unfreeze everything around slowly, starting from the main study, I focused really hard. I never called such strong flames, but at the same time, they were gentle and melted the ice slowly. After they unfroze one part, they went to the other part of the mansion, destroying nothing or leaving burn marks. After my flames melted everything in the mansion, I focused them on the outside. As I focused on the flames leaving the mansion, I heard a large thud behind me, which made me instantly lose all of my focus. All of my flames disappeared at that moment.

Leo's body was completely unfrozen, but I couldn't feel any life signs from him. He just fell to the ground.

"No!" I exclaimed.

Everyone was unfrozen, but I couldn't feel any signs of life. I focused again and noticed a sign of life in the hallway. It appeared suddenly.

"I knew you could do it," I heard Akios' voice from the hallway.

He entered the room in a celebratory mood. I felt I had broken the barrier, so I glanced at the window shortly to check it for sure. All the ice had already disappeared, even though I mainly focused on the inside. The mansion and its surroundings became a free place. I unfroze everything, but I wasn't happy with the situation at all.

"Leo and the others- they aren't showing any signs of life," I said as I nervously glanced around.

"So what?" said Akios, looking at me strangely. "They are strangers to you, are they not? Why would you care for them?"

"This isn't right," I whispered.

"People die all the time. It's normal," Akios said, uninterested.

"No. This is not right, I can't bear the thought of," I continued in a quiet tone, dreading of the situation in which everyone was already dead.

"What?" Akios interrupted me.

"We need to bring a doctor," I requested. "You can teleport. Bring someone here quickly! We need to reanimate them."

"A doctor? Reanimation?" 

Akios showed surprise, but quickly got over his initial shock.

"You are being so silly right now." Akios said as he laughed. "I never heard of a witch calling for a doctor." 

He laughed again. 

"If you are a witch, shouldn't you help them with your magic?"

"Please! I can't reanimate them, but a doctor could do it naturally."

"I get it. Even if you wanted to do something, you couldn't with your current magic level," Akios said it as though he was feeling sorry for me. 

"Such a pitiful girl."

It seemed like Akios didn't plan on helping them at all. He was probably the one who created this situation, so he didn't care at all. I walked towards the door and almost left the room when he called out to me.

"Stop!" he shouted.

His loud voice made me halt my movements, although I expected nothing from him.

"Well, you passed my test and as a wonderful teacher, I must reward you," he said. "I'll bring a doctor here," Akios smiled. His smile creeped me out. Akios changed his opinion too quickly.

As promised, he teleported and came back with a doctor.

"Dear doctor, would you reanimate these people, please?" Akios asked.

The doctor nodded and immediately went to work. He started massaging Leo's body, the part where his heart was. It was my first time seeing a doctor at a reanimation. My amazement was profound, and I desperately hoped for the doctor's success. After a while, the doctor stopped working on Leo and said it was no good. He went to the hallway and examined the unfrozen servants there.

"Didn't he give up too quickly?" I said my thoughts out loud. "Is there no way to save Leo and the others?"

"The doctor is no good, as you see, Calytrix," Akios said triumphantly, "But I can bring them back."

"Necromancy?" I asked sadly.

I knew it wasn't the right answer or the thing to do.

"Well, I'll use a bit of science that you seem so fond of and a bit of magic. My powers differ from yours."

"Really? They can be brought back as naturally as possible?" I asked.

"Of course, but I don't work for free even if my cute student begs me," Akios seemed like he could change his personality quick.

"I require a subcontract. I'll ask you to lend some of your power to my master in the time of need," he proposed.

I didn't answer him right away. Making a contract, lending power, was a serious thing. It wasn't even for Akios but for this his master, whom I knew nothing about.

"This one is also not good," I heard the doctor telling us about his progress from the hallway.

"No! That can't be! Are they all dead?" I said while slightly shaking."I didn't want to..."

"What?" Akios interrupted me.

"I don't want to be in a place with lots of corpses," I said as I panicked."I don't want to walk among them."

"I understand. We should help them," Akios said."If we leave them like this. It'll be like you played in a dead owner's mansion, while his body and those of the servants were still freshly murdered."

"You're the one who killed them," I accused him.

"No! You're misunderstanding me. I found everything like this when I prepared for your test. Somebody else did this," he defended himself. "But from the way you're looking at me, you won't believe me."

"Lectio animo!" Akios used a spell on himself.

I could clearly hear his thought as though they were mine. He wasn't lying. Akios actually found the place already frozen and decided to test me. He thought I had great potential as a witch and if I train properly, I could help his master Andrezey save the world.

"Finis!" he stopped the spell.

"It seems that you didn't lie," I said. "You're doing this for your master and he wants to save the world."

"See? I would be a terrible teacher if I lied and I'm not like that," Akios said. "Do you want me to help Leo and the others?"

"I guess I could trust you," I said, unsure.

"Excellent."

He covered my left hand with both of his hands and started chanting the contract spell in an unknown language. His magic was clearly different from mine. I never heard those chant words before, but the spell worked. The contract was in force. He didn't take any of my magic, but I felt like I was bound. My magic was bound. Akios or his master could bring out or stop my magic without me agreeing to it. In his thoughts, he mentioned his master would save the world and he could revive all the people from the mansion.

I probably didn't do the wrong thing. If something goes bad, there are always a lot of ways to break off a contract. I'll do that and fix any problems that may arise right away. A magical pentagram with unknown letters appeared on the back of my left hand. I looked at it closely, but I was distracted by Akios' spell chanting before I could carefully examine it.

Before I could come back to my senses, Akios started a powerful spell that covered the whole mansion. At first, it was a kind, gentle magic, but then it became darker and heavy. I didn't like how it ended at all. 

I could hear the sounds of waking up all over the mansion. Leo also woke up. He looked normal. There was no sign of decay or special scars. A zombie, a person revived with necromancy, would immediately heave the place of death. He seemed to be in his normal, human state, but when I looked into his eyes, they looked dead. They were dark, dark brown. Maybe that was his natural colour, but my intuition said otherwise.

"You- are you?" Leo spoke like a normal human. He stood up and walked towards me naturally, like he was a normal, healthy person. I jumped a few steps back. The darkness of the last part of the spell and the emptiness in his eyes made me want to retreat.

"Oh, are you shy, Calytrix? I didn't know you were that type," Akios said."Everything is all right now. You did well." 

He smiled lightly. 

"I'll let you rest, for now. We'll talk later." 

Akios used his teleportation magic on me.

"Wait! "I said, but it was too late.

The teleportation started. I had a lot of questions and unresolved things here, but I couldn't stop the teleportation. I had to accept it for now and resolve all the fresh problems later. The last thing I saw was Leo looking at me very closely. He said something, but I couldn't hear him because the teleportation magic blocked all sounds.