Farah chuckled. "How delightful. I'm intrigued to hear about his powers as well." Suddenly, all she could hear was white noise, and she closed her eyes, knowing they turned grey.
You think you can hide your creature from me? Rosalind's voice echoed in Farah's mind, making her wince.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool… he has to expend his own energy like I do, but his power heals and soothes instead of manifesting as fire." Aiki explained, fidgeting with their hands a bit. "Are you okay?" He asked upon noticing Farah's wincing.
Farah barely heard them over the white noise Rosalind was creating in her head, but she did hear and managed a short reply. "Rosalind," she moaned quietly.
If you think you will be using my gateway ring to send it home, you are sadly mistaken, dearest Farah.
"Rosalind?" He repeated, putting the pieces together to assume that Rosalind was speaking to Farah telepathically. "Um… what… what is she saying?" They asked awkwardly, not entirely sure what they should do.
"Nothing, I can handle it," Farah muttered. Saul wrapped his arm around her protectively and murmured comforting words in her ear that he doubted she could hear.
They will go home, whether you help or not, she shot back telepathically.
Oh, we'll see about that.
Aiki seemed a bit nervous at the response. They wanted to know what was happening and what Rosalind was saying, but they couldn't force Farah to tell them, and they wouldn't want to either way. He could only sit and hope everything would work out.
Come to my office.
At once, the ringing in her ears vanished, signaling Rosalind had left, and Farah gasped. Her eyes flew open again. "I'm sorry, I…" She shook her head. "I have to go."
"Farah, don't," Saul protested.
"Farah?" Aiki seemed confused and worried now. Farah suddenly needing to leave definitely didn't seem to be a good sign. "Don't… don't go…" He said softly, fidgeting with his hands. It must be Rosalind calling her again…
"I have to," Farah whispered. "I don't want her to hurt you." She refused to meet Saul or Aiki's eyes. "I… I have to go. I'm sorry." She stood up and made her way to the door. Before she left, she turned to them with a firm gaze, but the shining of restricted tears in her eyes took away from the severity of her gaze. "Don't…" She looked away, blinking away her tears briefly before looking back at them, specifically Saul. "Don't follow me this time. Please." With that she turned and left, shutting the door soundly behind her. She debated using magic to lock them in, but she shook her head and walked down the hall to Rosalind's office.
Aiki turned his ears back, looking worried and nervous. They flinched a bit when Farah closed the door and they looked away, turning their gaze up to Saul. "What should we do?" He asked softly. "I-I don't want to make things worse for her again… b-but I don't like her being stuck alone with Rosalind either…"
Saul looked at him, and the hurt in his eyes was clear. His night and morning with Farah had been amazing, and now… this. He shuddered but shook his head. "We don't follow her… All we can do now is wait for Luna to get here."
–
Farah raised her fist to knock on the headmistress's door, but before she touched the wood, the door was flung open and Farah was yanked roughly inside – both actions done by magic. The door shut and locked behind her, and when Farah picked herself up off the floor, she saw her mentor behind her desk fixing her with an icy stare.
"Let's get right to it, Farah. There's no point in stalling what is inevitable."
"Ahhh!" A bolt of pain ripped through Farah's head, and she collapsed to the floor again, no doubt collecting more bruises.
"Tell me what I want to know," Rosalind demanded. "Then all the pain will go away."
Farah whimpered, clutching at her head desperately with her hands.
"Oh, yes. I feel it," Rosalind sighed. "Your willpower… your strength… and your… weaknesses. By the way… how was your night with Saul?"
Farah looked up in shock, fear flooding her face even though she desperately tried to keep her emotions in check. She couldn't help it as her heart began to race. "H-How…? How do you-?"
"I have my ways."
The pain became intolerable. Farah screamed, curling her arms over her head and curling into a ball on the floor.
"I… okay…" Aiki replied reluctantly, looking away again. With their enhanced hearing, they could catch a bit of Farah's screaming even from this far away, and their head twitched and trembled. He turned his ears back and covered them with his hands, grimacing and shaking his head a bit. They definitely didn't want to hear the pain Farah was in, especially when they weren't allowed to help.
Saul straightened up when he saw Aiki trembling. "What is it? What's wrong? Can you feel her?"
–
"You and Saul…" Rosalind laughed. "I can't believe it. Is that why you asked for him to be your Specialist? So you could–"
"Enough," Farah moaned, curling up as tight as she could. "Please."
Rosalind grinned. "Oh, but Farah… I'm ever so curious why you chose Saul and not Andreas."
Farah's face contorted in a grimace as the pain in her head flatlined where she wasn't screaming in agony, but she also couldn't focus or formulate a single thought.
"Andreas is a much better Specialist than Saul," Rosalind continued, not caring to keep her voice down. She knew any loud noises would distort Farah's mental processes, so she toned her voice slightly above its normal volume. "Everyone knows it. For God's sake, Saul let you get hurt."
"He… He didn't," Farah gasped, gripping her hair tightly as if one pain would ease another.
Aiki winced, rubbing at his now ringing ears. "I-I could… I could hear her, for a second…" They murmured in reply, their head still twitching a bit. "She was… screaming. Like last time. I hate to leave her in there alone… and we're too far away for me to hear what they're talking about in there. W-What are we supposed to do?" He asked weakly.
Saul contemplated for a moment, then he stood up. "Let's at least get close enough that you can hear," he decided.
–
Rosalind waved her hand dismissively. "Of course he didn't. But what I really can't grasp is how Saul fell… for you."
Farah looked up at Rosalind with as much of a glare that she could muster without any excessive pain.
"I mean… look at you." Rosalind's tone sent waves of old insecurities through Farah, and the older fairy smirked as she felt them all. "How could he love you for anything but your powers?"
"Stop it," Farah groaned, pushing herself into an odd, sort-of sitting position.
"But she told us not to follow her…" Aiki replied softly, getting to his feet regardless. "Don't you think she might be mad at us for eavesdropping? Especially since there's nothing we can do to actually make Rosalind stop… I don't want to make things worse for her."
"I don't care. If anything, I just need to know what's happening," Saul replied, shaking his head. "Farah is always in more pain than she really lets on."
–
"Your strength… your powers… your magic is the only reason you have been successful at Alfea. I hope you know." Rosalind stood up from her desk and slowly paced towards Farah. "And even then, you are not as powerful as some."
Farah felt the pull of the unconscious, but she shook her head in resistance. "Yes," she muttered. "But… more powerful than most."
Rosalind stopped walking and sneered. "What are you insinuating?"
Farah looked up, a flicker of defiance passed through her features. "You know."
"Alright… if she gets mad, I'm blaming you, though." Aiki huffed a bit and followed Saul closer to the office. Their ears perked up and swiveled to try and catch the conversation from within. "Mm… it seems pretty simular to last time. Rosalind is… taunting Farah about something, and Farah's resisting…" He murmured quietly to Saul.
"You do that," Saul said, heading down the hallway. He stopped when he saw Aiki's ears perk up out of the corner of his eye. He listened and sighed softly. "Of course she is." His face wrinkled with worry. "Just… keep listening."
–
"You don't really believe you are more powerful than me, do you?" Rosalind asked, doing nothing to keep the disgusted tone out of her voice.
Suddenly, with a burst of energy, Farah was again able to overpower Rosalind. "No, I don't," Farah said, almost mockingly. "I've had my fill of being pushed around by you."
Rosalind felt much more shocked than she showed, but she took a step back as Farah rose to her feet. "I trained you better than this," she snarled.
"You trained me to be strong and fight," Farah retorted. "So that is what I'm doing."
Aiki listened closely, moving a couple of steps closer so that he could hear more clearly. "Mmm… it sounds like Farah is fighting back…" They murmured, seeming a bit surprised. "And she's… winning? I think? Rosalind definitely isn't getting the better of her at the moment… I can hear footsteps; two sets of them. So that means Farah's on her feet."
Saul's eyes lit up with pride. "Finally," he murmured. "She's been training for years to be stronger than Rosalind. I wasn't sure if it was even working, or if she was just holding it back all this time."
–
Suddenly, Farah's phone chimed in her pocket. Farah checked the message while glancing up every few seconds to keep Rosalind at bay.
Luna: Nearly there. Meet me by the gateway in the forest.
Farah inhaled slowly and slipped her phone back into her pocket. Then, not breaking eye contact with Rosalind, Farah began to back up toward the door. "If you'll excuse me," she said, meticulously selecting her words and thoughts so she didn't give Rosalind any indicators of what might actually be going on, "I have prior engagements that call for my attention." She took a step out of the office, smirked, and held her palm up before the door. Her eyes turned silver-blue, and at her command, a magical veil was placed in the entrance to the door.
Rosalind immediately recognized it. "Cryo-Inducement. When did you learn that?"
"In my free time," Farah replied with a brief wink and left. The second she was out of Rosalind's earshot, she let out a soft sigh.
Aiki nodded and kept listening, but then suddenly grabbed Saul by the wrist and started pulling him back to the room they were supposed to be in. "We gotta go now before she sees us! She's coming out now!" They insisted in a sharp whisper, heading back as quickly as they could manage.
Saul reacted on instinct and followed Aiki back to the dorm. It was a short run, thankfully, but once they got inside, Saul bent over to catch his breath so it wouldn't look like he and Aiki had just been sprinting. After a second, he grinned and shook his head. "So she is finally fighting back."
Aiki nodded, trying to catch their breath as well as they headed over to sit back on the bed where they were before. "Y-Yeah, sounds like it… she should be back really soon, so try and act natural, yeah?" He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, fidgeting with his hands.
Saul nodded just as the knob turned and Farah stepped into the room. She looked weary, but despite her tiredness, the expression on her face and the light in her eyes made her look powerful. She took a few steps into the room, stopped, and eyed them both with a scrutinizing gaze. She crossed her arms over her chest and smirked knowingly. "You expect me to believe that you both just sat here the entire time I was gone?"