Chapter 23: The brooms and mops of hell!

I got up from the floor of the infirmary, then walked trembling towards him.
“ Dominic’s leaving “ I stated, shrugging.
“I know….I heard. I was right outside the door.” He replied, his eyes fixated on Dominic’s chain lying in my neck.

I cleared my throat hoping to take his attention away from it and said, “ You think I am a coward, don’t you? For hiding in here, while I should be out there protecting my own people?”
He looked me in the eye and replied, “ Coward ? You are more courageous and mature than I gave you credit for. It takes more courage to sit out of a fight in which in you have everything at stake than to head directly into a battle you know you would lose if you were in it. I honestly thought you would be reckless and insist on going with Dominic. But you being there would have only made things worse for him.”

“Since when do you care about Dominic? Don’t you hate him?” I asked him, skeptically.
He sighed and replied, “I don’t hate Dominic. We just have been placed in the opposite sides since we were young. We just don’t see eye to eye in certain matters. However that doesn’t change the fact that I respect him as a rival. A strong opposition is always essential so that the leader is always on his toes.”

He really deserved to be the Head of the Council. Now that his rage had subsided, I was starting to have a glimpse at the real Stephanno. The Stephanno that Stella had mentioned, who was equitable and righteous.
My smile dropped off my face suddenly as I realized that I would probably never make it as a guardian.

I asked him, being terrified of what his answer was going to be, “ I didn’t make it, did I? After all Ronald didn’t just win, he knocked me out, completely wiping the floor with me”

“ Everyone including Ronald voted for you to be in and get personalized training from me. Trust me, being able to last enough a minute under Ronald in a man to man combat is a great achievement and you lasted for three whole minutes. Only the best of the best gets to train with me. It was me who voted against you. In fact, I was just on my way in here to tell you that I won’t be training you when I overheard you. I swear, I had no intention to eavesdrop. Please pardon me if you feel like I have disrupted your privacy” he replied, sighing.

What? All of them voted for me? Even that sly bastard Ronald? And it was Stephanno who voted against me. That hit me where it should, right in the heart. I winced sharply at his frankness.
“ You think I am a waste of your time don’t you? Don’t worry I won’t pester you to train me” I said sighing, slouching my shoulders with disappointment.
To which he replied, “ Well, it was my intention to reject you, but now I have changed my mind after overhearing you”
“You did?” I asked, as I felt a flicker of hope spark inside me.
“ Your attitude and relentlessness to admit defeat are noteworthy, and you do have potential. The only reason I had against training you was that I felt that you were a little self -obsessed and immature, a fact you proved wrong just a few minutes ago.”
“ But I feel like such a coward for not going with him”
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to keep going that counts in the end. You have taken a step back today to put two steps ahead tomorrow.” He replied solemnly.

I smiled softly at him with relief. I have a chance now….a real chance. This time I am going to do everything right. I am going to let my ego and arrogance take a seat back, and start everything from the scratch…no shortcuts this time… I will train harder than ever before, until I become worthy of being called Stephanno’s mate and capable enough to ride into battle side by side with him…….

“ So how do we do this? The personal training” I asked him shyly, brushing my rogue strands of hair behind my ear.
“ Are you fully recovered now?” he asked me while looking at me quizzically.

Oh right, I was supposed to feel dizzy and light headed from my fall. I, immediately did a passable job of pretending to be hurt as I replied, “ I am still a little sore. But by tomorrow I would be as good as new.”
He nodded and replied, “Then we will start from tomorrow onwards. Come find me in my study tomorrow morning.”

So the training task Stephanno meant was me cleaning the entire goddamn mansion. I was exhausted from all the cleaning. It’s really difficult to wipe the floors clean when people walked on it every few seconds. I had given up wiping the floors completely and was currently perched upon the window sill of Stephanno’s study room , scrubbing the windows, while fuming inside recollecting our conversation this morning.

I had found his study after a few minutes of getting lost in the mansion in the morning and knocked on the door three times.
There was no reply so I braced myself and went in.

I looked around the study and found more classic paintings. Stephanno really had a thing for art. His study was just breath-taking beautiful, from the Victorian wood work to its interiors.
I found him sitting on the chair leisurely, reading into a file intently. He probably didn’t hear me knock because he was so absorbed in it. I cleared my throat announcing my presence. He tore his eyes from the file and locked it into mine.

“You told me to come find you in the morning for my tasks”, I stated nervously, fidgeting.
He raised his left eyebrow, then sighed and put the file onto the Victorian desk, then got up and walked towards me.
“So….Shall we begin my training? Are you going to teach me how to use a bow or a sword or…” I started pestering him, excited.
“Do you see the mop and cleaning items in the corner?”
“Hhm, yeah” I replied bewildered at what that has got to do with the training.
“ That’s your task for the day. Clean the entire mansion and everything in it. Wipe its floors, clean its windows.” He drawled on and my cocky smirk was instantly replaced by my trademark scowl.
“What the hell? I thought you are supposed to be training me?” I yelled defiantly.
“This is part of your training. Complete it and we can move on to the next task”

Ugh! Me cleaning the entire mansion single- handedly? That was a disaster in the making. Was this some sort of petty revenge? I glared daggers at him, my eyes cursing him to the depths of hell. He however looked least bothered by my murderous glare and just shrugged and pointed towards the corner where the broom and the mop and several cleaning items were neatly arranged.

I swore out loud and I saw his eyes twinkle with an amused glint when I called him a pompous, know it all, all mighty bastard.
I took the bucket filled with the cleaning supplies, then held the broom and mop in the other hand and my intention was to slam the door behind me with a bam which didn’t seem to be working out with my hands full, which made me further pissed.

I dumped the bucket on the floor and carefully arranged the broom and mop to lean on the walls of the main hallway, then walked back in to the study and did my classic bitch hair toss while looking icily at him, then walked myself out again , this time arrogantly with my head held high.

Stephanno was looking at me with an amused expression on his face, trying hard and failing miserably hard to control his laughter, which of course further irked me out and I slammed the door shut with all my might. Ugh! he had just complimented me yesterday that I was mature.

The mop and broom I had carefully leaned on the wall, shook from the impact and fell down, rolling. I cursed out loud. I quickly held the bucket in my one hand and started pursuing the mop and broom, which was rolling down the stairs fast.

I shuddered embarrassed at the memory of me frog jumping down the stairs trying to catch the goddamn broom. I had wondered at the moment whether Daniel had made a mistake in his prophecy, cause frog jumping down the stairs, I really didn’t feel like the daughter of the devil, who would be the cause of that war that ends all of mankind. Instead I felt like a dumb loser.

I jumped in surprise when I heard the door to the study open , pulling me back to the present ,and making my lose my balance completely. I gripped the cement with all my weight. I was now hanging outside the window sill, my body floating in the air, four feet up from the ground. I swallowed hard and willed myself to not to look down. I was sure that the minute I look down, I will lose my grip and fall to the ground, breaking a few bones in the process.

“We don’t involve ourselves in other people’s fights. I am not prepared to let my people die when the blood sect hadn’t yet made a move on us. Yes, I do agree that the sudden appearance of the blood sect may have caused to jump on to the defensive. But as far as we are concerned we never had any fights with the blood sect so we are opting to stay out of this…this manslaughter.” I heard a voice trying to sound nonchalant.
Another voice replied, “, “They are the blood sect, Henry. They aren’t going to differentiate between the people they slaughter. We need to join hands and our resources to fight them.”

Oh my god, how many were in there?
There was something eerie about the second voice that immediately send a chill down my neck. I swear I had goose bumps when I heard that voice.
My hands were already numb from all the scrubbing and I was starting to loose my grip. That voice...though....whose was it? why did it immediately put me on an edge?