The Academy: i don't pretend to be a phantom ; xolotl

Things have changed in the time of their talk. They parted for some time, as they both fled to the Reef, lost in their own thoughts, their own devices. And perhaps Xolotl had changed his mind. But the scene at the Reef is out of her hands now. It was never in her hands and when she had fought for it, fought tooth and nail for a life, a precious life, she had lost it. Simply because the mare felt it was pointless to go on.

And what was Hypatia to do?

Slowly, she walks into the Academy. There is sadness in her step, her head does not hang high, and her body feels old. The ruins do not awaken her mind as they usually do, nor does her Fire spring at the sight of it. Things have changed, and the Naphtha with it.

But she cannot forget her students. They are her pride and joy. They are her reason. Not the birds. Not the stupid, stupid Jaegers. Anger sprays up in a whisk of fire and heat. Kail comes closer to her and rubs against her leg. A tear drop falls upon his small head. ’patia. It’s not your fault. And as much as Kail says this, she cannot agree with it. She did not do her duty. And most of all, her people would rather give up their lives than live to another day.

The Oracle has failed her people.

She finds Xolotl, himself probably having come recently from the scene, the scene where he was peace and love. Hypatia did not want to kill Mab, she never did and never said that. She wanted to know as it is her duty. She said nothing to any of them. She apologized. She tried! But Libra did not listen to her, and Mab had told the truth. This was beyond her, beyond things that she could not do.

“And now you see why I am no Queen.”

Maybe, after all, these are not her people.

“I am Fire, and they are Water, and we can never truly understand each other. How is Fire to quell the rage of the sea?” She is no bird, she does not desire Air, does not want to bathe in the Waves. “Mab will belong nowhere now, and a trade cannot possibly be made now. Time has changed things.”

She looks at him, and the warmth of her body gives no comfort to the blind stallion.

“Perhaps it is time you find another Queen, another cause, another pair of eyes."