There was a long pause after Jon uttered the words and Helia was not in a hurry to break it. She looked at Jon with patience, knowing full well that the decision was not an easy one to make. Jon used those few precious moments to gather all the determination and strength he felt he needed to say the truly important words. With all the courage he felt he could muster Jon did a leap of faith.
"I accept your offer." he said softly, but it seemed as if the words echoed around him.
As the words were said Helia released the breath she did not know she was holding and closed her eyes briefly. She then moved her gaze towards Jon's, searching his eyes for doubt. "I feel like I should not push my luck, but I have to ask - are you really sure?" she asked firmly.
Jon took a deep breath and nodded "I have thought long about it. In the end there seemed to be enough reasons for either decision. It was not until I talked with my friend Karyn that I really came up with decision." he paused "She said that life is full of risks and sometimes you need to make a leap of faith. She said that if she truly believed that the most important things to her would survive the price she is forced to pay, she would take the risk." He firmly gazed into Helia's eyes "I am not sure what exactly will change with the ritual that will make me into woman. But I believe that there is no magic in the world that will be able to break what is important to me." what that is was left unsaid, though Helia did not really need to hear it to know.
She smiled softly "You have a really good friend. I promise you now - you will still have that bond after ritual. That I swear." she said firmly and smiled as she could visibly see some of the tension in Jon's body leaving him. She offered him a wider smile "Even though you are not yet my apprentice officially, I feel like I have to tell you this..." she paused "I am proud of you. I know that it was not easy to make this decision. For many reasons. As such I want to promise you that I will do my best to teach you all I know. However long it takes." she smiled.
"Now, could you do me a favor and flip over the sign outside? We have things to discuss and a ritual to prepare for." she asked gently. Jon nodded and opened the door, flipping sign over so it would now say 'Closed'. He then closed the door and Helia just motioned him to follow her behind the counter. As he walked behind the counter Jon could hear the lock of door locking itself, cutting him and his new teacher off from the rest of the world. As he entered the room behind the counter Jon was surprised to see that it was entirely different room than the one he drank the tea in. It was much more spacious and looked like a large office. There was a large wooden antique desk at the end of the room with a desk lamp on top of it. There were some documents in a document tray and a few of books. Behind the desk was large, comfortable-looking leather office arm chair. Before the desk was a smaller leather chair. To the right side of spacious office were couple bookshelves full of books and a large, almost lifelike statue of a soldier dressed fully in armor and holding two-handed sword. There were also couple shelves with interesting-looking trinkets and a glass case in which there was a beautiful, intricate necklace and beautifully carved wooden staff. To the left of the office was a warm fireplace that had fire burning inside it and two arm chairs with small coffee table between them.
Helia confidently strolled into the room, walking behind a desk and taking a seat. She watched with some amusement as Jon needed a few moments to figure out how the small room they drank tea in turned into office and chuckled. "Magic, Jon. Magic. Please, take a seat." she motioned to free seat before her. He nodded and soon got comfortable on his seat, still looking around but then taking control of his wandering eyes and paying full attention to Helia. She smiled lightly and leaned back in seat, crossing her legs. "First, I want to say how happy I am that you accepted my offer. It would have saddened me greatly to give up such a great opportunity after searching for so long, so I thank you for you decision." she said "Secondly, we should discuss the ritual. As I imagine you figured out it is permanent." Jon nodded at that and she continued "It is honestly not very complicated. Some of materials involved are not exactly common but I have everything at hand. I also went ahead and prepared ritual circle already. While I had no way of knowing for sure you will agree I chose to believe in my hunch that you will." she smiled gently and Jon smiled back. "Now, the ritual itself is quite powerful. Usually it is used on much younger prospects than you, but there were cases when someone in the past took older apprentices like I am doing with you. The ritual will quite frankly change reality as you know it. Both of us will be able to influence those changes to an extent and, like I promised, I will make sure that your bond with Karyn will remain as strong as ever." she said and smiled at Jon's thankful nod. "Last thing you need to know is that there is oath involved in this. We both will make oaths before magic itself as witness that will make me your master and you my apprentice. This kind of oath is unbreakable - no kind of magic in the world will be able to remove it. I need you understand it. Once you make the oath it is a point of no return. I will be your teacher, guide and master until you have nothing more to learn. Do you understand?" she asked, looking at Jon's eyes.
"Yes." Jon said firmly, his gaze unwavering.
Helia smiled "Good. Now, I guess I should cover some of the perks you get." she said with a giggle and hummed "Well, the important one for you is probably magic. I will be teaching you spells, how to channel magical energy, how to control it and so on and on. Witchcraft is one of the oldest magic traditions in the world, if not the oldest, so you will have plenty to learn, trust me." she gave Jon a smirk "You will also get a natural magic ability then you become a witch. These abilities are unique from person to person, though there are records of some witches getting same abilities. You have already seen mine - fire. I can freely create and control flame." she smiled "We have no way to find out your ability before it awakens, but I am sure you will not be disappointed." she hummed "I will also provide you a part-time job at my shop. We will be using that as excuse for you to come over for your magic lessons. As bonus I will provide you with some extra cash so you would have something to show for your work. Though who knows - maybe after your crash course on magic I will have you work behind counter for a bit." she smirked "Think that covers all I can think from the top of my head. I am sure I might be forgetting something, but it is likely not really important currently. Any questions?"
Jon thought for a bit "What should I expect to change when I become woman? And what exactly is involved in the oath?"
Helia hummed in though "For the change, I can't know for sure. Magic on this scale can be unpredictable. It will, however, likely take the path of least resistance. Your name will change, obviously. But any truly large events should remain the same. The ritual will be influenced by your will and desires so what you want to remain same will remain same and what you want to change shall change. You probably will end up looking like female version of yourself, but it is hard to guess. You will sort of have instinctive knowledge you will need to live in new reality. Like mannerisms. If you run into any serious changes you will acquire the memory of new reality in a sort of flashback, for lack of better term. Those will continue until the old reality will seem as if it was a dream, though you will always remember how things used to be. Actually, you might be getting new memories as dreams too." Helia explained "As for the oath - it will be sort of instinctive. Then we start you will naturally know the words you have to say, believe me. It is, at it's core, just a promise of student and master between the two of us."
Jon nodded "Don't think I have any more questions. When are we going to do the ritual?"
Helia smiled "As soon as possible, so - if you are ready now we can go and do it."
Jon took a deep breath and nodded "I am ready."
Helia smiled and stood up "Then follow me." she said and walked towards the curtain. Jon was quick to follow.
The room Helia and Jon just entered was large, but sparsely decorated. Along the smooth stone walls hung several red tapestries with candle holders placed in the middle between them which had burning candles that emitted a bright light. Tapestries themselves were dark red color with golden trims on the edge and a familiar silver crescent moon symbol with black outline in the middle of each tapestry. In the middle of the room there was a small table with a silver bowl that seemed to have some kind of thick liquid in it and a small ornate dagger. In the middle of the room itself, drawn on the stone floor with what looked like black ink was a complicated ritual circle.
Jon looked around briefly and turned towards Helia. "That looks rather... ominous." he said, tilting his head towards circle.
Helia smiled slightly "Maybe a bit. But honestly it is kind of a set of instructions, I think is best description. It gathers magic energy, channels it and invokes instructions. You said you thought about studying programming right?" Jon nodded slightly "It is kinda like that. Think about the circle as program's code. Magic is like electricity that program uses to work. You are a file that is going to be edited. And I am a programmer who will make sure there are no errors in the code and the one who will start the program." she chuckled "Not the best explanation, I will admit, but well - I am not a programmer." she winked. "Anyways, stand in the middle." she instructed and walked to the back.
Jon nodded and walked into the middle of complicated drawing, standing there. Helia took a small dagger from the table and walked towards Jon. "First comes oath. I will need a bit of your blood. Don't worry, a light slash on fingertip will do. I will go first, just relax. You will feel what to say." she said softly. Jon nodded, showing he was ready. Helia briefly closed her eyes and then opened them once more, looking directly at Jon's own.
As she did Jon could feel the air in the room shift. It almost felt that static current was running through the air, making little hairs on his arms to stand. He could feel air itself become charged with something he could only assume was magic. Helia then took the dagger into her right hand and made a small cut on the left index finger. She squeezed at the cut a bit, letting out a single blood drop on the circle below. As soon as it did Jon could feel as if some kind of pulse of magic went through whole room and Helia looked into his eyes.
"With this blood and as magic is my witness I, Helia Rowley, make this solemn oath. I take the one standing before me as my apprentice. I promise on my honor and my magic to train my apprentice to the best of my abilities for as long as I am deemed worthy to be the teacher in my apprentice's eyes. In return, I ask for an oath that then it comes to learning you will do as I ask and will trust my knowledge and warnings as I wish only the best for you. You may not always understand, you may make mistakes, but trust me to guide and teach you until the day I have nothing more to teach."
The air in the room seemed to shift once more as the circle beneath the two started to glow slightly. Helia passed Jon the dagger which he took into his right hand. Without hesitation or fear he made a cut on his left index finger, letting out a drop of blood to fall on the circle. A pulse seemed to spread once more, but Jon focused instead at Helia's eyes.
"With this blood and as magic is my witness I, Jon Madison, make this solemn oath. I take the one standing before me as my teacher. I promise on my honor and my magic to learn from her to the best of my abilities for as long as I am deemed worthy to be the student in my teacher's eyes. I understand that you have more knowledge than me and I promise to listen and follow your instructions to the best of my ability. I trust in your knowledge and in your abilities and I am honored to be your apprentice until the day I have nothing else to learn."
As Jon finished the words another pulse went through the room and Jon felt that something changed. It felt that there was a sort of connection between himself and Helia now. A sort of bond. It did not feel bad, though. He smiled softly and Helia smiled back. "The oath was made. Only one more step to make. Are you ready, apprentice?" she asked seriously.
Jon nodded "Yes, teacher."
She smiled and took the dagger from his hand, walking back to the end of the room, putting it back on table and taking the bowl in both of her hands. She looked at Jon briefly "Then ritual starts focus on everything good in your life. Will it remain so. Leave the rest to me." She instructed and Jon nodded in understanding. She then stood at one of the tips of the ritual circle and closed her eyes. Slowly she started to speak in a weird, flowing language that Jon could not understand. The words flowed one after another and the light in the room seemingly dimmed. The circle beneath their feet started to pulse with each rhythmic word. The liquid in the bowl started to boil then steam and the steam started to flow from it around the circle.
Jon felt compelled to close his eyes and calmed himself. He focused on his life, on everything that was good in it and especially on Karyn. He willed with all his strength that all the things he treasured would remain in his life. He hoped to be able to show Karyn how much he really cared and for many other little things. He almost felt as if the room was spinning, he felt a sort of pulling and shifting sensation. The chant Helia was saying reached a peak and with a sharp pulse of light Jon felt his consciousness drift away as he finally passed out.
