"I'm sorry… I-I'm sorry… I'm so s-sorry…" Aiki whispered apology after apology, burying their face in their hands as they trembled and sobbed. He was still stuck in his own memories, although Rosalind presumably didn't care to see them. She was just glad to see them suffering and upset, even if she didn't know the reason.
He found himself feeling like there was something over his mouth, like the muzzle that had been put on him when he was just a kid. Their throat was starting to tighten and their ears flattened back against their head as they gasped for breath. Despite Rosalind's assurances, he definitely felt trapped. They didn't think it was below her to lie and keep them around to use for her own purposes.
"Aiki," Farah said slowly, sitting upright with small movements. "Darling… come here…" She opened her arms – again, slowly – to welcome Aiki into her embrace. "There's… no… need… to be… sorry." It took a little while and a lot of energy to get the words out, but Farah was determined to reassure them. "Rosalind… is good… at… m-mani…" She sighed and collected her breath to finish. "Manipulating."
Aiki looked up at Farah weakly, clutching at their throat as they drew in harsh, shallow breaths, and tears rolled down their pale cheeks. He shakily moved over to her and clung tightly to her, burying his face in her shoulder. "B-But I should've—should've b-been—stronger—l-like you…" They managed to choke out. "I-I just… s—s-she kept talking about—h—h-how I'm n-never gonna see Eiji again…" He sobbed a bit harder, feeling guilty and still terrified.
It took her a moment to find the energy, but she wrapped her arms around Aiki in return. "How… long… do you think… it… took…" A labored breath. "For me… to become… so… strong? It takes… time." The words dripped from her mouth. She had so much more she wanted to say, but not enough energy to exert. "It… takes… trials." Her hand slowly rubbed his back to comfort him. "You will… see… Eiji… again… I swear… on… my own… life." After all her talking, Farah was exhausted, so she closed her eyes and sighed.
Aiki whimpered shakily, keeping their face hidden for now. "I-I just… she… s-she wanted to know about my power…" He whispered weakly. "I-I think I told her more than I should've, I… I should've lied or something, I dunno… left something out…? B-But I guess she would've found out either way, even if she needed to use force… I'm weak… weak and stupid."
"Aiki, you are not weak or stupid," Farah stated firmly, wincing at the tremendous amount of effort it took to get the whole sentence out in one go. "You… ah," she let out a long sigh and stayed silent for a moment. "You… are… young. Do you… have… any… idea… how… Rosalind… took… advantage… of my… youth?" It hurt to talk about, especially with some of the memories Rosalind had brought back up. She squeezed her eyes even tighter shut, hoping to wash away the memories.
Aiki sighed weakly, fresh tears welling up in their eyes. "I-I just… I feel like a dumb little kid… all I do is whine about being homesick and wanting to see my brother and my parents, and get upset over stupid things, and get taken advantage of b-because I wasn't careful enough despite your warnings… t-this is all my fault, and I'm s-sorry… I'm so sorry… I'm sorry that I drained your energy… it'll be a little while until you recover, I'm afraid." He laughed dryly; humorlessly. "That's what I end up doing to myself all the time… a-and plus the hypoglycemia…" They trailed off.
"Darling," Farah whispered, finding it was easier to talk this way. "This is not… entirely your fault. Rosalind… is a very skilled… manipulator. You never… met me when I was… your age. I was very… similar to how… you are now. And Rosalind made me… do things I never… should have done." She rested her head against Aiki's looking for every possible way to conserve her energy. Ideally, she would sleep it off, but she knew Aiki needed her now. "It's alright… I will recover eventually. Look at… you. You do this… all the time."
Aiki was growing tired now as well, and Farah's assurances were slowly but surely helping them to relax. Besides, they were stuck in this room until the Cryo-Inducement Veil was removed anyway. "I tried… I-I tried to drain her energy instead…" He whispered. "B-But I don't have very good control when I'm taking someone's energy other than my own, since I don't practice that… understandably, most people don't want to have their energy drained. It's not very fun… b-but anyway, when she… when she pushed you towards me, I couldn't… I couldn't keep it on her… it just switched to whoever was closest, a-and I was super upset, so… s-so I couldn't get it to stop. It's hard to control when I'm not stable and focused…"
"Practice," she murmured. Her eyes flew open so she didn't fall unconscious. "When I get better… I will help you. All it takes… is practice and… patience." She felt herself using up whatever energy she had left, and slowly, the pull to sleep grew stronger and stronger. "Rosalind gave me… the practice, but… but not the patience. That I… had to learn on my own. I can… teach you both."
"O-Okay, but… but after this, I'm sure you don't want to have your energy drained again…" Aiki said softly, moving to support Farah a bit more since he knew how tired she must be. "I'm sure we'll figure something out later, but for now, do you want me to call Saul?"
Farah appreciatively curled into Aiki. "I will… if it helps you… Oh, Saul!" she gasped quietly. "Yes… call him… please. He… must be… worried." She slipped her phone out of her back pocket and handed it to them. "His number… is on speed dial," she murmured before letting her eyes close again.
"Alright, if you're sure…" Aiki sighed and accepted the phone, managing to locate Saul's number and call it. He held the phone up to his ear and waited for an answer before he started to speak. "Um… hi? This is Aiki… I-I'm with Farah in Rosalind's office, and… and there's the ice thing on the door, I think, so we can't leave…"
Saul stood in the corridor still, entertaining himself by counting the steps it would take to get from one end of the doorway to the other. Suddenly, his phone rang. Seeing Farah's name and contact image pop up, he smiled and quickly answered. "Hello?" Hearing Aiki's voice instead of Farah's set him off into an initial panic, and as Aiki explained what was happening, his panic only increased. He heard "Rosalind's office" and immediately set off in that direction. "Wait," he cut in when Aiki paused. "Explain it again, slower. And where is Farah?"
"Um… F-Farah is with me in Rosalind's office. Rosalind left to… um… I-I can't remember if she said what she left for." Aiki replied, his voice still sounding like he'd been crying. "Farah is okay, she's… s-she's not injured. She's just really tired. That's why I'm calling instead, um… on her phone since I don't have your number or anything." They were still pretty uneasy, and it was hard to keep their voice even. "And… and I think there's that ice thing on the door to keep us in, so you can't just walk in here."
"If she's okay, then why isn't she on the phone?" Saul questioned, closing the distance rapidly between himself and the headmistress' office.
Farah's eyes opened slightly. "Let me… talk to him," she murmured.
"Well, she's… she's really tired, like I said, s-so…" Aiki glanced down when Farah spoke. "Ah, are you sure? Okay… um… she wants to talk to you, so I'm passing the phone to her now." He held the phone up to her ear so she wouldn't have to expend energy to hold it.
She smiled at the small gesture and spoke quickly, yet still whispering. "Saul?"
"Farah?! What's going on?" Saul asked worriedly. "Why are you in Rosalind's office? I thought you were going to look for Aiki."
"I was," she replied. "He was here."
"Where's Rosalind?"
"She left. When you get here… you can't come in… right away. I have to… dispel the veil… Rosalind placed before… she left."
Aiki rubbed at their eyes a bit while Farah spoke, trying to pull themself together before Saul arrived. He knew he'd have to explain what had happened and why Farah was so tired all of a sudden. They sighed softly and curled their tail around themself, rubbing their ears a bit as a nervous habit that helped calm them down.
"Okay, I'm almost there," Saul said. "I haven't seen Rosalind yet."
"Lovely," Farah muttered sarcastically. She looked over at Aiki. "When I dispel… the veil… you need to unlock… the door… for Saul," she instructed.
The amount of energy needed to dispel a veil was slightly greater than the amount needed to create it. Normally, the task was simple, but for Farah, the effects could be concerning. Still, she sat up as much as possible and looked at the door. Slowly, she pulled together as much energy as she could and began the complicated process of dispelling a veil. Few fairies knew how to do this kind of magic.
Aiki nodded along with the instructions and shakily got to his feet, putting the phone on speaker and setting it on the ground so he could do as he was instructed without making Farah expend extra energy. They took a few deep breaths, keeping out of range of the veil to wait for it to be expelled.
Farah used more and more of her energy, and the lightheaded feeling quickly returned. Still, she pushed through and after a few moments, the veil flashed white, then vanished. Farah sighed and fell back against the table she had been leaning on. Her eyes flickered shut.
"Farah? I'm here," Saul said over the phone.
Aiki unlocked the door as soon as he was sure that the veil was gone. They pulled it open to see Saul and moved aside so that he could come into the room. "She got rid of the veil, s-so we should be okay now…" He said softly.
"Right. Thanks." Saul nodded at Aiki, then looked around the room for Farah. The second his eyes located her – weak and nearly unconscious on the floor – he sprinted over and knelt beside her. "Farah? I thought you said you were okay."
"I am," she whispered, keeping her eyes closed. "Just tired."
Aiki closed the door behind Saul and headed over to sit beside him and Farah, fidgeting with their hands and looking guilty and upset still. "I-I… had to use my power with her energy." He said softly, looking around at the scorched items in the office.
Saul whipped his head to look at Aiki. "You what?!"
Farah's eyes opened. "Saul-"
"No, Farah," Saul cut her off. "I want to hear it from them."
Aiki cowered at the look, turning their ears back with a shaky whine. "I-I didn't mean to! I… R-Rosalind was j-just…" He could feel his throat starting to tighten again and he brought one hand up to it, trembling. "I h-had to… she… I-I tried to use it on Rosalind instead, b-but she pushed Farah closer and— a-and I c-can't— control my p-power very well— when I-I'm using it on s— s-somebody else…" They choked and coughed, tears rolling down their cheeks again. "E-Ended up— t— t-taking from whoever— w-was closest… I'm s… I'm s-sorry… I'm s-so sorry… please…"
"Saul…" Farah whispered, cupping his face so he would look at her instead of Aiki. "It wasn't their fault… You can't blame Aiki… It was Rosalind."
Saul shook his head. "Rosalind…"
"Believe me, Saul…" Farah murmured desperately.
"I do," Saul replied shortly. "Rosalind…" His anger began to build again. "She's hurt you too many times Farah. Directly or indirectly. I refuse to let her hurt you anymore."
Aiki drew their knees up to their chest and hugged them tightly, gasping for breath and trembling uncontrollably. He hid his face as he sobbed, curling up to try and make himself small. They still felt sick with guilt and they didn't want to be here. He desperately just wanted to go home so this would all be some horrible nightmare. "S-She keeps calling me 'it' and 'creature' a-and I c— c-can't do it anymore… I'm s-sorry…" They whispered.
"Aiki…" Farah reached for him and touched his arm gently. A flow of calm transferred from her to them through the touch. The energy flow quickly drained her again, but she didn't stop.
Saul looked thoughtful. Ever the strategist, he was already planning Rosalind's demise. "How much longer do you think she'll be like this?"
