Xilanada - Unforsakable Birthright/Part 11

"Our table is right over there, Xilanada," Ava said, speaking up over the din of the cafeteria. It was the prime dinner hour and the Headmistress did not enforce rules of silence at the tables, feeling it was better for the student's spirits if they had the outlet.

Xilanada knew this, because she had helped clean up during and after prime meal times.

Ava steered them to the Table of Professors, a rather elegant affair large enough to seat thirty. As it was, only half a dozen professors were here right now. Not everyone ate at the same time, for one reason or another.

It didn't help that out of the staff of 28, only about 7 or so taught the advanced courses, and those were especially favored by the Master of the School, Tepet Malias. Everyone here right now was among those, since the rest of the staff often preferred to eat before or after the time the Master took his meal here.

"Have a seat, right here," Ava pointed out. Xilanada sat down, feeling a bit overwhelmed and rather grateful for somewhere solid to rest against. "Get comfortable, a servant will bring you your food in a minute. Why don't I introduce you to the rest at the table here?"

Xilanada nodded and Ava sat next to her. The Air-Aspect gave her a warm, friendly feeling, despite the distance Ava's history and elemental markings would usually inspire. But perhaps she could relate, because she also knew what it was like to be an outsider.

"Hey, you must be Xila?" asked another woman at the table. She looked strangely supranatural. Not different, but transcendent. Perfect in a way no mortal should look. From the long silvery locks to the crimson hue of her eyes, the woman was otherworldly to say the least.

Otherworldly enough to be Faerie.

"Xilanada," she corrected. "And you are..?"

"MaGlee*click*Churl," the woman answered, grinning. The name was as fantastically odd as her appearance, with a strange clicking sound right in the middle seemingly made by moving the tongue to the top of the mouth, forming a seal against it and breaking it.

"That's quite an unusual name."

"And yours isn't?" The woman laughed. "Don't be so tense, I was just playing. You can call me Glee. Everyone else does. How about you, any short name? Not Xila?"

"Lana would do, if you'd like," Xilanada answered politely. It was strange hearing nicknames of a name that had never truly been hers to begin with.

"You've met Rainblown Joybringer," Ava said, stepping in and pointing toward the reclusive God-Blooded who appeared to be meditating over his food. Xilanada offered him a smile and he responded with a wave, all the while not breaking his concentration. He was easily the most handsome man in the room but his disinterest in his surroundings blunted the impact of his beauty.

"And I'm Piiro," spoke the other man seated at the table. Compared to the other people at the tables, he was the most normal looking, even if he was a Westerner. The pale-blue hue to his hair was the color of sea-foam, a color strangely echoed in his eyes. Piiro was comely enough, yet it was his force of will that set him apart from the others at the table and not his looks.

"Piiro. I'm Xilanada." She gave him a courteous nod, one that quirked the corners of his mouth.

"Yours is an unusual tale, I hear. The servant made king. Tell me, what does it feel like to be living the reality?" His voice was polite, even friendly, but his words made Xilanada repress the desire to attack.

"The Headmistress is employing me to teach as one of her Professors, and I will do that job to the best of my ability. When you look at it, work is work, Piiro."

"Yes, teaching can be quite demanding. You look to be up to it, though, which makes me glad. Our students deserve the best, don't you think? I'll be honest. I'm a little concerned that one who was a servant is now entrusted with that responsibility."

Piiro seemed honest, in fact, open and cordial in his concern. And it wasn't false honesty either, at least not that Xilanada could tell. But something about him set her teeth on edge. It wasn't what he was saying, and it might not even be his thoughts of her at all. But something wasn't right with Piiro. Of all the Professors at these tables, it was this one she realized she trusted the least.

"I've always thought that knowledge has its own value, separate from the one who offers it," Xilanada answered at last. It took effort to be polite but for one Dynastically trained it was rudimentary. She might not be from the Realm any longer but she remembered its lessons. "If my students want to learn, then they will learn because the knowledge will be right there. And if they don't, then how well they pass their proficiency exams at the end of the year will reflect that."

"An excellent point," Piiro said, taking a drink from a cup set before him by a serving woman. Xilanada tried to ignore the look the girl gave her. They had cleaned several of the same common areas before her ascension here. "But that raises another concern. Remember that the School makes its money from these students. If they don't pass, then their parents aren't likely to keep them enrolled here, are they? In that respect, we are doing them a disservice if they aren't getting the skills they need."

"Piiro, back off of her," Ava said hotly, in the first flash of impulse characteristic to the Air-Aspected. "We can't dumb down what we teach, just because some people don't want to learn it and that's what your argument would lead to. First Age Lore is boring anyway, as we both know. I think Xilanada's just the right woman for the job, because she actually cares about the subject. If the student is at all willing to learn, they'll learn from her. Might even teach the rest of us a little."

"I hope so," Piiro said, looking sincerely concerned. "It is only the sake of the children I worry about. Please don't think its anything personal, Xilanada."

"I'm sure Xilanda recognizes your enthusiasm for our students, Piiro." Tepet Seya settled down next to Glee. "Remember that I oversee the quality of education being taught here. I will see to the School's interests, be certain of that. I am confident enough in my choice to give Xilanada the chance to prove herself. So far, she has done so. Until she gives you other reason, Piiro, your worries would be better directed toward catching up any lagging students."

"Of course, Headmistress," he replied smoothly.

"Welcome, Xilanada," Seya said, smiling at her. "How were your first day of classes?"

"Rather good, thank you...Seya." It still felt awkward to address the Headmistress so familiarly, but Xilanada managed a smile that hopefully wasn't too clumsy. "Your curriculum is well-developed. It should be easy to follow the lecture notes the prior Professor left for me. And the students are more eager than I would have thought, given the class is history."

"'From the best soil comes the best fruit.'" Rainblown Joybringer spoke up. "One of the things we all do, from mortal to God-Blood to Exalt, is dream. But to dream, we need that foundation of reality and there's no better way to teach that foundation than to go over what's happened already."

"Unless it was that boring," Glee said, eliciting a grin from everyone at the table.

"Maybe you're not doing it right," Seya answered the mischievous Glee. "Try picking up a book every now and then. Perhaps the knowledge will just leak into you through your skin."

"Really? How about I just cut out the middleman and go right to the source?" Glee leaned to the side and pressed the side of her head against Seya's forehead and bunched up her face in tight concentration, much to the amusement of the onlookers.

"I don't think there's enough in all of our heads to fill yours, Glee," Seya laughed.

The conversation degenerated from there into random quips and jibes as well as amusing anecdotes of the day's classes. Xilanada for the most part said nothing, only watched, listened and learned what it was to be a Professor here among Professors.

The food was tasty and the conversation interesting but it all slipped away when the world suddenly slowed to a crawl in her mind. Behind her, from nowhere, a knife hurled through space at her shoulder.

There was no way she could see it coming, if not for the magics of her Surprise Anticipation Method charm. Through its lens, Xilanada could watch how the light flowed up and down the polished length of the weapon as it tumbled toward her. The proof that at least some of the Charms of the Solar were still hers was undeniable.

But what should she do? She could evade it...and prove herself for the Anathema that she was. Or she could do nothing. The knife would hurt, but there would be no way for an observer to know what she was.

In the end, it was only pain.

Xilanada couldn't avoid the wince as the sharp weapon slashed into her, penetrating her with the shocking coldness of steel. She fell forward, catching herself from sprawling across the table, even as the Professors reacted in surprise by leaping to their feet.

"Did anyone see who struck her?" the Headmistress demanded as she leapt over the table, Realm training asserting itself as she moved to cover Xilanada. One by one, the Professors said no as they looked about.

The pain was quite fierce but controllable to one of Xilanada's training. The question now was what to do about the bleeding. If she had the Charms of a Solar...she might have the healing of a Solar too, and that meant the ability to stop the blood loss with a thought.

That was not a thought she could afford to make, right now. Not and remain unnoticed. Evidentially, she still had Essence if she could use Surprise Anticipation Method. For some reason, no one had noticed that her soul bore Essence but showing the strengths of an Exalt would certainly guarantee another look.

"Xilanada, I'm going to have to pull the knife out," Seya said kindly in her ear. "Brace yourself."

Xilanada nodded and couldn't help but wince again as the blade pulled free. It felt like it pulled all the heat in her body with her. She leaned against the table and struggled not to staunch the flow of blood, struggled to allow herself to bleed like a mortal. Of course, it might be a futile thought if she was mistaken about her remaining Exaltation.

"Be still," Seya said, her hands moving over the wound, sending fresh waves of pain to wrack her still-sick body. "I'm going to use a Charm and heal you. You'll be fine, Xilanada. And we'll find out who did this to you, I promise you."

At once, waves of soothing Essence seemed to invade every cell in her shoulder, pushing past her skin, digging down into the muscle and bone. The Essence had a strange flavor to it, earthy and stolid. Xilanada did all she could not to repel the foreign Essence, to allow it to work its will upon her flesh.

It wasn't painful but it wasn't pleasant to feel her blood be stoppered like a bottle, to feel flesh pushed back together and skin pulled taut over the wound. The healing Charm was crude and unrefined, but it did the job and in moments Xilanada could breathe easily again as the pain left her body.

Xilanada twisted her neck back and looked at the deeply bruised but whole skin on her back, and the deep slash through her robes that the knife had left.

"Thank you, Seya. That...that could have killed me. It would have, wouldn't it?"

"It could well have," Seya said, nodding gravely. "But it didn't. Professors!" she said more loudly, changing her audience. "I want this room searched and the attacker found!"

They split up and moved about the students, one by one, even as the students themselves noticed the blood and fell silent.

"I didn't see anything," Xilanada said.

"Not with it striking you in the back, no, I would be surprised if you had," Seya answered with a kind smile. "Don't worry. We'll take care of this. No one attacks one of my Professors without repercussion. We protect our own."

And for the first time since Passion had welcomed her into her home, Xilanada felt...safe.