You WILL train me( Part 2)

" Then you need not worry. Because I've got a counter offer just for you. " Rumius said. His proclamation hung in the air admist the rushing wind. He saw his Mistress's lips twitch curiously.

" A counter offer?" She repeated, then grinned interestedly. "Let us hear it then."

Rumius forced his legs to move. It would help him think and at the same time, it would help establish him as the dominant character. He needed to be the predator. He needed in control for this to work. He needed to take the initiative.

" I won't leave everything just to be your apprentice, Mistress." He said, not without politeness." But I am willing to give everything else up, other than my family." Rumius chose his words as he spoke them, carefully. " I will sacrifice everything else, just let me still keep in touch with my mother. Even through mail would be fine. I am all the family she still has. And her and Rennie are all the family I still have right now." He pleaded.

He intentionally shifted to a more peaceful tone. Asking her instead of telling her.

Mistress Isadora wasn't used to being defied, so openly opposing her by talking as if they were equals wasn't a good idea. Rumius wanted to show her that he knew that she was doing him the favour.

Another factor was how he only knew vaguely how much she wanted him. But he knew a lot better how much he wanted her tutelage. And it was a lot. The promise of such endless power and the opening of a world with so many possibilities was too much for him to turn down.

Mistress Isadora took a moment to contemplate his words. " That is the same offer I made you. You simply removed an element." She shook her head. "This can't be called a proportional trade."

" You're right. But I am not willing to abandon my family. They come first." He insisted." My desires come second."

" Are you sure?" She asked, again with that smile that seemed to imply that she knew something that he didn't. It was like she always doubted him, and every word she said was meant to throw him off and he was growing an increasing dislike for it. Though he was sure that this was exactly what she was meaning to do.

" Yes, I'm sure." Rumius stressed.

Mistress Isadora began to walk again and now, the two of them were circling each other like competing wolves. Rumius buried a gulp and forced his legs to keep up.

" Do you like magic, Rumius?" Mistress asked. It was such an out of place question that Rumius was taken aback. He inadvertently froze dead in his tracks.

The answer came to him immediately. It was an overwhelming, and absolute: " Yes."

" I do." He replied." But that alone won't make me leave my family behind. I'm still young, so I can always pursue it when I grow up." Rumius quickly turned her springboard into his to launch an attack or his own. " There's no need for me to make the choice to go with you right now." 

" If you grow up." Mistress Isadora snickered, hinting to dangers that still awaited him when word of his ability would be inevitably leaked. 

" Maybe." He said as he forced a smile. " But if that happens, you wouldn't be able to teach me."

" And what makes you think I'd want to teach you that much? You're overestimating your worth." 

" I'm not." Rumius retorted." I know that my gift makes me valuable to you. How valuable I don't know. But I am sure that I am valuable enough that you would accept my deal."

Mistress Isadora looked at him, again with that snide smirk that seemed to indicate that she knew better. A wave of self doubt crashed against him as she asked: "Are you sure?" 

The thoughts rushed in like seawater through a breach in a ship's hull. Panic rose in his chest. But this wasn't the first time in this single conversation or in many others that she had made him feel this way. Rumius was ready for it. He knew that it was easiest to attack the premise of his argument which was his worth. But that meant that it was even more important that he kept it steady.

All those months of living with her and enduring all the pain she'd sent his way was not in vain.

' What if I'm not that valuable after all? Is my argument even valid? What if-' the voices in his head whispered. 

' NO! I AM VALUABLE! EVEN IF I'M NOT THEN MY SKILL IS VALUABLE!' 

' But what if-'

' NO. WHAT. IFS! SHE ADMITTED HERSELF THAT MY ABILITY TO TRANSLATE IS UNPRECEDENTED! ITS HISTORIC! SO KEEP PUSHING ON! YOU'RE NOT USELESS! SHE ONLY WANTS YOU TO THINK THAT WAY! KEEP TALKING! KEEP TALKING!

Rumius fought back fiercely. He couldn't let himself falter. Once he did then it would all be over. That's right, once he did then it would all be over.

He still had leverage so he had to tough out her attacks.

" I'm sure." 

Mistress Isadora suddenly walked over and extended her hand. For a moment, Rumius was terribly confused. 

Then she said:"There's no need to try so hard. Just have to take my hand. You will suffer a little now, but in comparison to the rewards awaiting you at the end, you will see that this pain is nothing in comparison."

Rumius's was shook as he looked at Mistress Isadora's outstretched hand. It was as if he was looking at it through a tube, with walls on all sides to block out other sights. Even the winds had become quieter all of a sudden, as if deliberately blowing more softly to pay audience to the choice he had to make.

In that moment, it was like the world was telling him that the decisive moment had come. It was too fast. He had needed more time to persuade her! Was this was part of her ploy afterall? But Rumius could do nothing. The time to make a choice was already here.

" I can promise you great power." Mistress Isadora said, pushing her hand forward encouragingly. " And with it you can get wealth, respect, fame. If you're looking for kinship and love then power can get you that too. " " You only need to make a small sacrifice right now." 

Rumius saw his mother's face flash before his eyes. Her smile, her kind amber eyes. He saw Rennie too, and he remembered how she had been there everyday of his young life. Little snippets of his life flashed before his eyes like cutscene of a hyper realistic film. The laughs, the cries and all the moments he felt their love clearly. The look his mother gave him when she had left him in Mistress's Isadora's hut hung in his mind, and the words she had whispered in his ears rang like tiny harbour bells, calling him home. 

Not a day had gone by that he had forgotten her words.

" Maman's sorry she couldn't tell you more. Please come back soon, alright? ."she'd said.' 

' What would they think once they know that I've abandoned them?' He thought.' What would they feel? I can't possibly do that do them.' 

But just as the thought echoed in his mind, the other side of him fought back. It was a side of him that he had thought was long dead in his previous life. It's fire snuffed out. But now it was back.And it was calling to him. If the thoughts of his loved ones were beckoning bells, then this was the vast sea, smelling salt and wind and promising danger and adventure.

' Take her hand. Take it. Take it.' It urged him, and Rumius nearly reached out and grabbed it right at that instant. Rumsius felt the desire to spread his wings and fly to that summit that Mistress spoke of emanating deep from inside his heart. He wanted to see what the scenery from the pinnacle looked like.

This was a whole new world, how could he just live like he used to? He belonged out there, the voice told him. Not back home. 

' Take her hand.' It whispered again, and Rumius could hear the plead and urgency in its voice. ' Just take her hand.'

Slowly, Rumius's hand rose from his side. It crept closer, and closer to Mistress Isadora's open palm. And just the instant when it drew parallel to hers, it dropped.

Mistress Isadora's face fell. 

" I can't do it." Rumius signed. He looked up from her hand to see his Mistress's blue eyes, filled with contempt. 

" Tch, what a waste." She said. " I suppose that-" 

" I'm going to need both." Rumius declared boldly. Even as he said the words he could feel how ridiculous it was, yet he said it anyway.

" What?" 

" I'm going to need both. I still want you to teach me. But I'm not leaving anyone behind to do it."