Xilanada - Descending Dark Of Past And Future/Part 3

"How is she, Glee?"

Headmistress Tepet Seya flexed her fingers as she sat and glanced at Sen, who was sitting to the side of her desk. Glee was too beautiful to be human, in a way that often inspired jealously. The quirky Professor had few female friends because of it, yet Seya counted herself among them. She simply didn't feel threatened or competitive. Not since they'd both been children.

Her friend leaned her elbows on the desk and gave Seya the most heart-wrenching look of misery. It was a little ridiculous. That was Glee for you. Sen rolled his eyes.

"She's okay. She's really sick but she seems better. She could talk."

"What did she have to say?" Seya asked pleasantly.

"She mostly confirmed what you thought. She doesn't remember much about it." She glared at Sen with surprising heat. "She was very grateful you'd thought of her. Half of what she said was thanks for you taking care of her."

"Something wrong, Glee?" Sen asked. He didn't bother and hide the smile on his face. Seya didn't either, for that matter.

"Nothing," mumbled the Professor.

"You sure?"

"...yeah," Glee said, even quieter than before.

"Did you learn anything?" Seya said, amused at the banter but needing to know the more important matters.

"Maybe. Not really. She knew what I was doing."

"Did she now?" Seya said, eyebrows rising in surprise. That was unusual. It was a rare Mage who would notice when the Fair Folk's children peered into their minds, much less when something like Glee was doing the looking. Someone with the right Occult training and prowess was reasonably able, of course. Few in the School could but Seya was one of them, and she had other reasons to trust something like Glee in the School, reasons that stretched back almost 90 years to their mutual youth.

"She's tough," Sen admitted with a distracted smile. Seya frowned a little at him, recognizing the reason for that absence of expression. Xilanada was more than likeable, that much had been clear from their first meeting. Seya encouraged familiarity among the staff but even she had made allowances to enjoy the thoughtful blonde's company more often.

Sen wasn't looking for company though. No, she'd seen him in lust often enough. This was something different. And his interest was far stronger than he was letting on.

Seya pressed her lips together and massaged her temples as she considered what this would mean. Her brother was far from objective but he was relentlessly reliable. If he thought he was in love, it could compromise that reliability.

"Thank you, Sen. Why don't you see to her? I'm certain she'd enjoy your company." Seya smiled at her brother's good-natured expression. She also politely ignored the sudden burst of flame from the fireplace and what that meant. No, she knew her brother's well-earned reputation and for all that he seemed to feel something for Lana, he was still who he'd always been.

"I'll do that. See you at dinner, Seya."

"Tell her I'm sorry?" Glee asked as the Dragon-Blooded walked to the door. He acknowledged her request with a nod and left. The supposed Faerie-Blooded slumped in her chair, looking a string-cut puppet.

"It's not so bad," Seya remarked, giving her friend a concerned look. They got along well, in part because the mercurial woman brought welcome excitement to her static life, in part because Glee always accepted Seya's expressions as genuine feeling, never looking below the surface. For a friend, Glee was uniquely fun and Seya was in a position to know how trustworthy she could be. Theirs was a friendship that had lasted more than a mortal lifetime and Seya was an expert at managing Glee by now.

"Not so bad?" Glee glared, staring at the door furiously. "If he never saw her again, it'd already be too much."

"Come now, Glee. What's troubling you?" Seya put on a warm smile to draw the Professor out.

"She likes him," Glee snapped. Then she sniffed and her face crumbled into teary dejection. Seya wordlessly passed a handkerchief to her. "I know he likes her, it's all over him. But she likes him too."

"I'm surprised at you, Glee," Seya chuckled. She met her hurt friend's face with a friendly look to turn aside the sting of her words. "What are either of them to you? You've never liked Sen much and you've only just met Lana."

"I know. I hate Sen!" Glee crossed her arms, black rage on the normally happy woman's face. "He uses women and throws them away. He's going to break her heart and she'll be hurt."

"Is this about how he treated you?" Seya asked.

"Me?" The complete blankness in her eyes proved that wasn’t it. "Oh! No, my heart wasn’t broken, sweet Seya. A couple of other parts felt like it, though." She giggled, as if the thought were a joke. "Sen was simply a one-night stand!"

"...that lasted for four months," Seya grinned. "At a time! How often was it that you two did those little flings? 20 times? More?"

"Still!" insisted the half-Faerie. "It didn’t mean anything and we haven't done anything in 20 years! But it means something to him when he looks at Xilanada. And it means something to her, too." Again gloom overcame the Professor’s sparkly face.

"Xilanada seems capable," Seya said slowly, eyeing Glee carefully. It was rare to see her sustain a particular emotion for any length of time. "I think you can trust her to be careful. But are you sure this is about Lana?"

"Of course it's about her!" Glee rose from her chair and paced the room. She seemed to struggle with speech for long minutes and Seya was content to leave her be, to give her the room to come to grips with what she wanted to say. It also afforded her the opportunity to discreetly read several reports needing her attention. Glee wouldn't notice.

"Well?" Seya asked at last, catching Glee's face harden with purpose just in time. She folded her hands together and leaned back in her chair.

"I love her," Glee said.

"You do?" Seya said, honestly surprised. Glee had dallied with several of the male Professors, rules or no, and had had many lovers of both genders over the decades but it'd been...what, since Sesus Lira, 30 years ago, that she'd last been with a woman? Seya's mind raced as she thought of how this scenario could unfold, and what could be done to mitigate conflict. She had a responsibility to run the school harmoniously and she couldn't do that if the staff was fighting. How could she have anticipated Glee would get a crush on a woman, now, after all this time?

"Of course I do," Glee sighed. She sat down again, chin in her palms over the desk as she settled in. "What's not to love? She's so...she's..."

"She's what?" Seya asked.

"She's...her! She's so her, it makes my tummy do little flips."

Seya repressed a giggle. That certainly was not becoming of a Headmistress, however funny the situation was. The people of Nexus might raise an eyebrow at the profession of feeling from one woman to another but Seya was Realm-born. Most of the students at the Heptagram had slept with each other by the time they had graduated no matter the gender. Including herself, come to think of it.

"Why her?" Seya questioned, studying Glee's every expression. The trick to reading her friend's feelings wasn't to see past the mask most people wore; it was to sort through the detritus of every whimsical thought that crossed her fancy. Glee sighed again, deeply.

"She was so...hungry."

"Hungry?"

"I mean, she needs so much. I only brushed them but her mind has such pain in it, I've never in my life seen its like. She's been hurt so deeply, she could be a fountain of suffering to quench a person's thirst forever."

"Not a mortal’s thirst," Seya said warningly. For once, Glee didn't catch the caution Seya had put in her voice. For once, Glee spoke on.

"And she's got such...passion, Seya, and darkness too. It's bursting out of her. She was angry with me and it was like an inferno to flatten Nexus! I wanted to die for displeasing her! I would have, if she'd asked it of me!" Glee trembled in her chair. Her red eyes were pulsing with color, like a deep pool of blood. "I can feel her pulling at me even now."

"Stop it, Glee!" shouted Seya. She almost never raised her voice, which is why the sound shocked Glee to her senses. The Professor looked horrified and clasped her hands over her mouth as she realized what she'd been saying. Seya didn't console her, either, needing Glee to get the point.

"I'm so sorry, Seya," Glee mumbled. "I don't know what got into me."

"Yes, you do." Seya shook her head, showing frustration. "You can't ever give into those feelings, Glee. To do so would cost someone forever. Would you chance someone's souls? Would you devour everything that makes Lana herself, just to warm yourself at her fire?"

"I wouldn't," Glee admitted. "But I couldn't, either. If you could only feel her, Seya! What is she? How can she do this to me?" Golden tears shone on the cheeks of the too-perfect Professor and a light scent of mint filled the air from them. "I put it behind me, I did. You know this! I haven't felt that hunger stir in a few years now."

"What is different?" Seya asked pointedly.

"I can't explain it!" Glee kicked her heel against a chair leg. "But Xilanada has enough inspiration in her for a dozen people. I've never met someone with her will! I could never stand against it but I can't resist it either. I want her so much..."

"Pull yourself together, Glee," Seya said sternly. "For her sake, it can never be. For your sake, it had best not. Even assuming she felt the same way...can you promise that you wouldn't leave her an empty, shattered vessel, soulless?"

"No, no I can't," Glee sobbed. She pressed her palm against her mouth, seeming to bite her hand. Seya simply weathered the emotional display, waiting it out. After a minute, Glee managed to gather herself and calmed down...as much as she ever did. "Don't worry. I'll stay away from her, promise. I promise. But I have to go. I don't feel well now and I still have to get ready for Introduction to Emerald Countermagic."

"Why don't you come over tonight, after first curfew?" Seya offered. "We'll finish that talk on Mela and have some more of that 623 vintage. Just you and me."

"That sounds nice," Glee sniffed, wiping at the last of her tears and even managing a smile. That was Glee. Tempting as it was to dismiss this incident, Seya knew better than to shrug off the changeling's shift in feeling. "I'll see you at dinner!"

Piiro came in, asked a brief question, and left just as quickly.

At last, Seya was able to stretch out in her chair and put her reports aside to think clearly about the matter. A disturbing pattern was emerging. It was one that had only tickled the edges of her consciousness but now was blooming into a full-out warning.

Xilanada had shown up several months ago. She had impressed Passion enough to get a job here, then impressed Seya herself enough to become a Professor. Her students raved about her class. The icy, aloof Ava had actually thawed for Xilanada. Sen was in love with her, or thought he was. And now Glee too.

What was Xilanada?

When she traced the patterns of relationships, only one conclusion flowed from the paper. Xilanada was infiltrating the School, deliberately or not. She was consolidating power. She didn't have enough leverage to do much yet but, at the rate she was going, she would. Everyone who spent any time around her seemed fascinated with her.

Everyone except for Rainblown Joybringer and Piiro. Of course, they both loved men. But maybe they were worth talking to.

Just in case.