Penance ↠ Volturi Kings {2} ✓

018

The day improved marginally when I, for the first time, managed to defeat Caesar during our one-on-one sessions.

"Very good," he praised. "You may have a chance yet. But don't let it go to your head, you still have much to learn."

He demonstrated this by beating me soundly in our next sparring match.

"I didn't know that move," I complained as he pulled me to my feet.

"You're not going to know every move the enemy throws at you or how to defend it. You have to think on your feet and be able to improvise," Caesar told me. "I can teach you stances and forms all day, but it's all useless if you can't adapt to your enemy's fighting style, no matter how foreign it is from your own. And that's not something you teach; you either can do it, or you cannot. It does, however, in part come with experience."

"Then give me experience. Fight using styles I don't know, because there's no way you've taught me everything there is to know."

"Far from it," Caesar said, a glint of approval in his eyes. "As with all my teaching methods, the best way for you to learn is for me to throw you in to the proverbial deep end."

"Sink or swim. Great," I quipped, though this was nothing less than what I expected. "Bring it on."

After spending the rest of the hour having my ass handed to me by Caesar (though he assured me that I had improved by the end), I made my way to Hugo's training room for my first session with Maxim, who was already waiting for me by the time I arrived.

"How's border patrol?" I asked once I had shut the door.

"Uneventful, but informative. Most times they have nothing better to do than gossip about what goes on within the walls of the castle," Maxim said.

"You find out anything of use?"

"Nothing yet, but I have no doubt they'll talk more freely once I've earned their trust. I have high hopes about this yet," he said.

"Do Vladimir and Stefan know about your gift?" I asked, my voice stumbling slightly when I spoke Stefan's name.

"I told them what I needed to persuade them I was useful and worth keeping. They believe my ability to create an aura of fear around me to be the full extent of my abilities."

"What is the full extent of your abilities?" I asked.

Maxim offered me a wry smile. "Let us just hope that you never have to find out, hmm? Besides, my gift is not the reason we are here. It's yours that I am far more interested in. Tell me how it's developed."

I explained my shadows, how they had evolved into something more powerful now that I was a vampire, from becoming solid to even listening in on distant conversations.

"You speak proudly of your gift, yet still you fear it," Maxim said thoughtfully. "You first feared that it would fail you, and you still do, but now you fear yourself also. It's rare that I encounter someone whose gift they cannot control due to their own fear of it, but it does happen. It's more common with darker gifts like ours. It's perfectly natural to fear succumbing to that darkness; the problem arises when we allow that fear to control us, and thus control our gift and how we wield it."

"So you've encounter this before?" I asked.

"Once, about two-hundred odd years ago. He was something of a protégé of mine. His gift, like yours, meshed well with mine. We were technically considered a coven, I suppose, and I joined the Volturi after we parted ways about a decade ago, cordially of course. He still owes me a favor." Maxim added the last sentence as an afterthought.