The Academy: don't let it burn you

As they are speaking, the tides change. The ebb and flow of the sea become the shifting dunes of sand. The call of the sea is silence by the roar of the wind. It is quiet in her new home. But that is what it is: home. Home now than the Reef ever could be. It was hers and hers alone. This was a Gift, given when she never expected it, and she would cherish it. The Diadem would keep her from the Shards power, and she would be able to form her own army, have her people by her side, when the time would come for the Shards to rise. She didn’t know when that would be, but she figured it would be someday.

But what about Xolotl?

She is still a Queen, but is she his Queen? As much as she wanted the wings of a Jaeger bird on her shoulders, the wax would not hold. They would not have flourished under her, and she and Severus knew that. Fei had known that too when she called her to the desert. As if she hadn’t felt the pull of the sands and heat. It had been home the moment is was found by the other Seer. Could he accept that? He who had forced her to wear the wings, to take up the challenge when she felt she didn’t want it.

Would he still love her?

“The wings were never meant for me.” She understood this, but could he, could anyone? The sting of a viper, while not in her usual vain, fit her easier, better. She could rally them, unite them, better than she could have ever united the Jaegers. “I have my people now, and I know what that means.” She touches his shoulder, hesitantly for fear he would baulk at the touch of the heated Queen of the Vipers. “The Jaegers…” there is silence, because she cannot explain it.

“Will you be a Viper, Xolotl?” She knew she would never stay Jaeger Queen; the Reef was not a place for Fire. The desert was. “Have I failed you now?” Flames, in the echo of wings, fall from her back, and a train of sand whirls around her legs now.

Will she be able to do all of this? There is hope, but there is fear. He can feel it in her Fire.