Compromise

Rumius's wide eyes shot straight to the door, but the only reply was silence and a rectangular outline casted by the silvery moonlight.

His eyes swiveled back the the paper in his hands, his mind racing like a horse.

' Rennie!'

' She found it!' 

' But why?'

Rumius thought long and hard but he couldn't come up with an answer. His gaze wouldn't leave the paper in his hands, the urge to open it was becoming irresistible. 

' Why would she give it back to me?'

' And where are the rest? This should only be either the second or third sheet and there were five.' He thought, eyeing the numbers that were printed at the bottom of each page but were now misplaced by the folding.

' I can understand if she was to keep it a secret, her life is on the line here but to give it back to me?'

Rumius shook his head, not understanding why on earth Rennie would have done such a thing. 

' If it were me I would have burnt these papers and pretended that I'd never seen them.' He thought.

Rumius could only think that Rennie wanted him to have it, as unbelievable as that was.

Before he could decide what to do next, a voice whispered in his ear: ' Throw it away. Pretend you didn't see it. Didn't you promise not to jeopardize the lives of others for your own greed anymore?' Said the voice in his head, its tone forceful and condemning and Rumius, although he didn't want to, had to admit that it was right.

What if he fainted again? What if the person coming in to wake him tomorrow wasn't Rennie but his mother? What would he do then? What would she say? 

The thoughts kept flooding in.

' What would Maman do if she found out that Rennie had given the sheets to him?'

' That would be blatant insubordination. Rennie could be fired.'

An all too familiar chill ran down his spine as the next thought crossed his mind.

' Or worse.'

' Throw it away. Ball it up and throw it away!' Exhorted the voice. It demanded his obeisance.

Rumius looked at the paper in his hands and braced himself. He would ball it up, crush it and toss it out the window. Yes. That was what he would do.

' Ball it up. Crush it. Throw it away. Ball it up. Crush it. Throw it away. Ball it-'

Rumius closed his eyes. And when he opened than again, the paper was still whole in his hands.

He gripped his blankets and bit his lips yet nothing could help him vent the feelings bottled up in his chest. He couldn't bring himself to do it.

He knew they were unreasonable. That they were selfish and dangerous. But how could he give up such an opportunity?

From the moment he had laid eyes on it, from the moment he flew up to that boundless sky that seemed so perfectly bisected into two, he had known that this force of magic was what dominated this new world.

This force would give him choices. It would allow him to become great, to finally reach out and fulfill his lofty dreams that even he didn't know of, other than a yearning that made him want to push himself to the limit. He didn't know why he felt this way, but neither did it matter.

 Magic would satisfy his desire to rise to the top. Magic was power. Magic matters.

And now, it was right here in his hands.

He would never get a better chance than this. 

Rumius felt torn apart. His desires clashing with his sense of responsibility. How could he abandon either? 

Then, an idea sparked in his head. It was so simple. 

He would simply read the papers. It didn't matter how many times he read it but once he was done, he would immediately throw them out. Rumius didn't know how taxing practicing magic would be so throwing the sheets out first would safeguard against repeating what he ended up doing the first time. It was so simple. And so brilliant.

 Rumius grinned smugly. His hands flew and in an instant, the sheets opened like blooming petals, its contents in full display. He would waste no time.

'Well, don't mind if I help myself.' 

Rumius found that the pages that Rennie had chosen couldn't be more ideal. He had already made it through most, if not all of the pages folded in the second sheet but those he held now in his hand were the pages of the third sheet. 

Slowly but carefully, Rumius made it through all five pages , then took a moment to recollect what each page said before repeating the cycle again. And again. And again. Until he could more or less predict what each page said as he read through. 

' Guess reading through won't bring me any closer, I'm going to need to try this out.'

Rumius stood up, the crib creaking beneath him as he got up on his feet and got as close as he could to the left side of the crib which faced the open window.

Holding the pages stacked together, Rumius held them between his thumb and his index finger on both hands and in a swift motion, pulled the hands in opposite directions of each other. One pulling up and one pushing down. 

A ripping sound filled the room as the pages tore easily right down the middle. 

A ripping sound filled the room once more as the originally rectangular pages were quartered into squares.

Splitting them into two stacks, Rumius tore the pages again. He then tore the other stack. Then repeated the process until the pieces were no bigger than his pinkie. 

Rumius paused, thinking, then collected his paper pieces and meshed them up into loose ball before drawing his arm back and, in a single breath, flung the pieces out of the open window.

The ball caught on the wind currents blowing outside and maintained in structure for a whole one beat, and two before exploding like confetti and scattering to the winds.

' And….that's a wrap.' Rumius thought contentedly to himself, dusting his hands off one another.

" No one will know about that, anymore!" He sang as he flopped down, assured,

Rumius rubbed his hands together and licked his lips. Anticipation shuddered down his spine.

'' Now, let's get to it.'

Rumius closed his eyes, the pages no longer in his hands but the words still fresh in his mind. The words came easily from memory.

' Harnessing magic is no easy task. I have written below the steps which you are to follow. Note that all magic originated from mana so the strength of the magic is determined by its quality and quantity, both of which are set at a specific level at birth but can be refined through training.'

' To initiate the magic cast, a sufficient supply of mana must first be drawn out and held at the ready. To do this, mages use a technique called 'Aura.' '

' Put simply, Aura is an enhanced state of mana released from the body. Although Mana seeps out of our bodies constantly without us noticing, this cannot be considered an 'Aura'. '

' When an Aura is formed, a mage is battle-ready. The mana used to constitute the 'Aura' is immediately funneled into their first spells. '

' The first step to achieve this goal will be to get a feel of the mana leaking from one's body. All else can come after.'

Was basically what the pages said. There was a small excerpt on the last page on how to enhance this Mana leakage into an ' Aura' but it was cut off. The rest of it was likely in the fourth sheet that was in Rennie's hands.

' Chances are that the first chapter will consist only of exercises to draw out my mana. If I can get through all of them then hopefully I will be able to cast spells soon afterwards!' Rumius thought gleefully

' The book said to start from the inside out. So I'll start by getting a feel of my Mana source.'

Rumius closed his eyes, reaching out for the burning flame in his chest. It came much more quickly now, much easier and less forced as if toggled on by the simple flick of a switch.

Rumius breathed in deeply. And exhaled in a long breath.

' First step. Clear.'

The instructions replayed in his head like a recording, the second step flowing into action like a rushing river.

Rumius focused, his concentration becoming sharper as he honed in on the area surrounding his Mana source, scouring for more details, more information.

And by the time he woke up, it was already morning.