The brat was now her slave.
Isadora reigned in her laughter quickly enough as she began to walk towards the kid again. She was coming to collect her prize. The brat wasn't looking at her. His eyes, emotionless and dead were fixed on the stone floor.
" Get up, and wipe that mopey look off your face." She said as she approached. The brat looked up at her voice with eyes full of betrayal. Tears glistened in them.
" W-Why?"
' Hmm…why I wonder? Can I just tell him because I felt like it?' Isadora mused. ' No, no, no, I'd best not burn the bridge fully. It'll still be better if he has some feelings left for me as a master since the experimenting would be a lot easier if he cooperated.'
So instead, Isadora responded with:" Don't ask me. Ask yourself. You were the one who was willing to give it all up."
When he didn't respond, Isadora decided to try the waters again.
" Do you regret it? I can undo the spell if you want."
' Like hell I will.' She thought inwardly, but there was no need for the brat to know that.
The brat looked as if he had been electrocuted as he glimpsed the false ray of hope that she'd held out to him. He had the look for a few seconds before shaking his head.
" No." he said quietly. " I don't regret it."
' My..what a man you are then.' Isadora mocked, but naturally she didn't say it aloud. In any case, the pact was now sealed in stone, there was no changing it. And neither did she want to. Not until she's had her share of fun with him at least. How many years had it been since she was this intrigued? She thought with glee.
" Well then, let's return shall we?" She said cheerily. Isadora clapped her hands the world swam. Images of the surroundings distorted and disappeared into new shapes. The air became hotter and the surroundings became filled with trees. A small hut sat waiting in front of her.
Isadora walked forward and flicked the door open with a wave of her wrist. She walked inside and immediately collapsed onto the rocking chair that she favoured.
" Rumius!" She called. " Be a dear and brew me a pot of tea would you? I'm tired. Then after you're finished, I want you to get some firewood for the night." It was well into the afternoon by now Isadora didn't feel like doing anything but unpack the new toy she'd just snared for herself.
The brat nodded duly and got his tasks. He was definitely more silent now, no doubt because he was overwhelmed by what had happened. She had taken the figure of a mentor from him and thoroughly trampled it to dust. Then she had enslaved him and even after that, he had to go on living as usual.
It sounded terrible on paper but when it came down to it, it was just words to Isadora. She was convinced that he would come back stronger from this. Even she had to admit that his ambition was strong, if not then she would have never been able to offer power as a trade off to his freedom.
This was a sturdy toy that wouldn't break that easily. She had known that the minute she sensed him fighting that Direbear in the trees. His Mana had truly been a sight to see. Isadora knew then that she wanted this kid. He was one of the best specimens that she'd ever laid her hands on. Perhaps even as good as him…as who? Suddenly she couldn't remember. Ah well, it didn't matter.
' Let's see what this kid's got.' Isadora fidgeted excitedly as she closed her eyes. And when she opened them again, she was in the mana world. Her gaze immediately went to the purple tether connected to her wrist. She tugged at the magic in its steady glow and dived into it. Her consciousness plunged into a deep, dark sea. There was no light in here, but in when she willed it to, a line of brightly shining mana was summoned into existence.
Isadora casted two spells, VISIONARY and QUANTIFY. The lines of mana began morphed, some shrinking, some fusing together into a new form. Slowly, a small rectangular shape took form and Isadora reached out and took the imaginary sheet of paper in her hands.
She skimmed through it quickly, eventually stopping at one section that caught her interest. No. That really caught her interest.
Isadora's widening eyes as she ran her hands over the characters was only the onset. Slowly, a multitude of questions began to form in her mind. She didn't understand. How did this brat? ' This brat..no wonder why his unique skill hasn't…even with his ability to read elder script. This isn't even in elder script in the first place!'
Unique skill: The Windblessed: Scion Of The Approaching Storm
Benefactor:?????
A number of Isadora's questions were instantly answered.
The first was why the brat didn't have a basic effect to his unique skill in the first place. It had been bothering her since she'd met him.
In the Human kingdoms of Aüserst, all humans were blessed with unique skills by the sun god, save for a few were scorned by society as tarnished and Uniqueless individuals. These skills that were bestowed by the lord of the sun always came with basic effects that were called 'Foundations' that their owners could use directly after being blessed.
Unique skills were special in that aspect. In that although no training was done, their owners could use magic regardless, as if it were some gift from the divine. For those who would decide to become mages, these skills would evolve as they grew stronger, allowing their users to acquire new abilities as the domains of their unique magic grew to encompass new concepts that were related around the base concept that created it.
The reason why the brat didn't have a basic effect to his unique skill was because he wasn't blessed by the Sun god in the first place! Why was he blessed by this person?
The second question that's as answered was why her books had all but been useless. They contained comprehensive knowledge on how to make a breakthrough and were decked full of examples of how magic should work and how it worked. With his ability, Isadora had fully expected the brat to power through his Foundation, First and even Second evolutions.
The criteria involved in evolving a unique skill was roughly the same as that to learning a new spell, with some added elements. A Unique skill evolved in accordance with its master's demands, and the process was tedious and time consuming. It wasn't uncommon to find mages who had been unable to evolve their unique skill even twice after 5 decades of dedicated study and research.
Most of the difficulty lay locked behind a cognitive block that forced people to rely on gut feel and luck afterall. That was right, unique magic evolution too, was rooted in the very basis of elder speech that required fixed conditions to be fulfilled first before the skill could evolve.
And because of the cognitive barrier that makes human brains unable to remember, comprehend or even copy elder speech without great difficulty, the only factor one could control was how far one's imagination was allowed to run. The better one could imagine how one wanted one's magic to evolve, the better chances there were of that actually happening.
The reason why although the brat could read elder speech yet still be unable to power through his basic effect, first evolution and second evolution like she had expected for him to do, was because his skill requirements were locked behind another language that even she had seen only ever seen once before.
It was ancient tongue that was nearly as ancient in Aüserst as elder speech itself.
Isadora put down the imaginary sheet of paper and let out a long, disappointed sigh. As the brat was right now, she couldn't conduct any advanced research on his skill. And it would be horrifyingly inefficient if she tried to do it, regardless.
She needed him to at least attain his Foundation first. Isadora took another look at the script of the brat's Unqiue skill and spent several moments in silence trying to remember where it was that she'd seen this old language. And when she finally remembered, her face fell. Isadora let out a silent moan of disbelief.
They hadn't stopped in one place for very long, but already had a long journey coming.