E.C. EDWARDS - The Mighty Antimagic Spell
Chapter 39 - Leonardo di Ser Piero Da Vinci..

“What have you done? Have you thought about opening the diary?”

“No ... I waited for you to go and see if Da Vinci could help us. Instead I calculated a few old recipes ... the quantities of ingredient that need to be mixed.”

“How boring is maths time ... but how boring it is to spend your Saturdays like that,” Johnny complained. “I never understood what magic has to do with maths ...”

“Mr. Knudlac said that what helps us in difficult situations in life is knowledge. This is what Mr. Kant told us, do you remember?”

“Yeah ...” Johnny said not very convinced.

“All subjects such as mathematics, chemistry, biology and others are part of the knowledge. They help us to become good wizards. To think before we act.”

“I think we should also socialize. Too much can damage your brain...,” Johnny smiled proudly, though because he had such a smart girl next to him.

“If learning ... means ruining my mind, then yes, I do it with pleasure,” smiled the girl.

“Come on, let’s look for Vinci.”

“Leonardo Da Vinci ... a great inventor. He can certainly help us.”

The two returned to the Wisdom Pavilion and after being allowed inside, searched and touched the right painting to see Leonardo Da Vinci.

The two children arrived in a workshop. Plenty of apprentices worked on various inventions.

Some of them worked on a flying suit that had arms made of light dry wood and even had feathers.

Other disciples worked on an imposing catapult, which would surely help anyone trying to besiege a fortress, destroy even the thickest walls.

The children, however, headed for an office where there was a man of about sixty, with long, grey hair and a white beard. The man was wearing old clothes dirty with various paints and oils.

“Mr. Leonardo Da Vinci?” Elizabeth asked.

“Leonardo di ser Piero Da Vinci at your disposal.”

The inventor reached out his hand without looking at the two children, thinking further about his drawings, scattered on that desk.

As he got no response, he returned. He was surprised when he saw the two children.

“Who are you? Thieves ... beggars !?” Mr. Da Vinci frowned.

Without waiting for an answer, Mr. Da Vinci called out to an apprentice:

“Luigi, who let these kids get in here ?! Take care of them!”

Luigi got close, shouting at them in Italian:

“USCITE FUORI LADRI! FUORI CON VOI!”

“Mr. Da Vinci ... we come from Mr. Tennyson.”

Luigi didn’t stop, however, from the task he was given. He grabbed Johnny by the collar and pushed him out.

Mr. Da Vinci took some sheets of paper and threw them at poor Luigi's head.

“Lascea questi bambini in pace. Sono nipote di rege, non vedi che bene sono vestiti!? TONTO! CREATURA SENZA NESSUNA RAGIONE!”

After Luigi apologized in his mother tongue, Da Vinci still reprimanded him a little in Italian:

“Cieco, buono a nulla…”

Then he asked the two children to sit at the desk and smiled gently.

“How's my good friend, Tennnyson?”

"I think he's preparing a letter for you," the girl said, smiling at Johnny.

When Da Vinci heard this, his eyes began to shine.

"He definitely gives me ideas for my arrow and flame thrower," said the inventor, while his glittering eyes were staring at a spot as if that invention were there.

Johnny woke Mr. Da Vinci deep into his thoughts, coughing slightly.

“Mr. Da Vinci, we have a question. When we heard we came to Florence, we really wanted to see to you. Lord Tennyson told us that you were the only one who could help us decipher the meaning of the words: what was written with ice ... will only be seen through the ice.”

Mr. Da Vinci began to think and talk frantically. In English ... and in Italian alternatively.

“What was written with ice ... solo attraverso il ghiaccio...”

He took a piece of coal and wrote on a wall. Then he erased still with the same piece of coal as dark as night, everything he wrote on the wall.

He took a quill pen made of peacock feather, bright green, dipped in a black substance and wrote on a piece of paper. After that ... he erased everything with the same pen.

“It seems that if I wrote something ... e ho cancellato con la stessa cosa. Nothing can be seen anymore,” remarked Mr. Da Vinci.

“What was written with pen ... it will only be seen through the pen,” Johnny thought. “Elizabeth ... maybe you should write again in that diary.”

“I tried, Johnny. I wrote in it and those words written by me disappeared in the diary pages. I also poured a whole ton of ink and it disappeared ...”

“But maybe because you didn't write with an ice pen?”

The boy thought a little, then continued:

“Look, for example I have a pen with a fire nib that burns the words on the page ... as if writing with fire. The nib is made of fire dragon scale. And I know Pepplyn, my roommate, has a nib made of rock dragon scale ... it looks like carving up in diary pages, so that nib can write. I thought ... Of course there must be ice nibs too, considering there are ice dragons.”

Elizabeth didn't know what the boy talked about, but jumped cheerfully from the chair she sat on. She saw so many magic and amazing things lately, that she knew she’d replace exactly what she needed.

“Let's go look for that magic pen then.”

“I know exactly where to replace it. If it’s there, we’ll replace it for sure,” the boy smiled somewhat confident.

“You're a genius, Johnny!”

“Evan smarter than Vinci!”

The children joined hands, then uttering the exit magic, left Da Vinci alone ... and surprised that the two disappeared suddenly, vanished into the wind.

After only a few moments, the inventor forgot about the children and returned to his inventions.

…

Outside the entrance to the Wisdom Pavilion, Aalbatrom waited for them.

“Mr. Aalbatrom, is there a pen with ice dragon nib?”

“Of course, my dear. Rujnoiu definitely had something like this ...”

“That’s what I hoped ... let's buy one,” Johnny urged Elizabeth.

But Aalbatrom stopped them:

“Johnny, Mr. Knudlac asked me to let you know he’s waiting for you to talk to you.”

“But ...”

“He said it’s something that can no longer be postponed. Something about maths lessons that will help you in life ...”

Johnny looked at the girl and said:

“This maths will follow me like a nightmare all my life ...”

He then turned to the girl and said, upset:

“Unfortunately I can't come. But don't worry, Rujnoiu is a good elf. Even if he’s grumpy by nature at first sight, after he realizes you’re kind, he’ll give you what you need. Take 5 pennies... to buy whatever you need.”

Elizabeth didn't know what to say. She hesitated.

“Come on, get the money. You'll give it back to me sometime. Go take your pen and see what is written in that diary. It may be something important ... from your parents.”

The girl took the money, hugged Johnny as you do with a dear brother, then left for Rujnoiu's magic shop.

The boy began to run towards the tower where the professors lived to meet Professor Knudlac.