Chapter Text
Farah burst into the greenhouse like a madwoman, desperately wanting to confirm what she already knew deep inside. Her determination was only matched by the fire in Saul’s voice : “What the hell did you do ?” He was visibly upset, thinking that she had taken unconsidered risks to save his life. She spoke with the same tone of defiance as she crossed the room to stand in front of Ben and him. “It wasn’t me. I barely got there in time. Reckless teenagers with God complexes.” The earth fairy chuckled involuntarily which somehow allowed for his two friends to relax a bit and ground themselves. Ghosts of smiles eventually appeared on their lips as Dowling anchored her gaze in the Specialist’s light orbs. The adrenaline was settling, and if she had been honest, she would have admitted being a little too harsh on the kids. Hell, she probably would have done the same if she had been the one to spot the Burned One.
Harvey took a few steps back, seemingly satisfied with his examination of the patient. He nodded towards the Headmistress and turned his back to them to return to his potions. It was official then, Saul was getting better. She still wasn’t entirely satisfied with just knowing it, she needed to see it, to feel it. Mimicking earlier motions, she ran her finger across the skin of his shoulders, then neck, and then jaw, carefully observing the fading veins. His epiderma was no longer burning under her touch, and began to gain some color back. Slowly lowering her hand, she rested her palm on his chest. As the fingers of her other hands drew small, imperceptible shapes in the air in an attempt to soak all the magic of the room in, the fairy’s eyes turned icy as she began scanning her specialist’s beating heart. When they returned to their original warm chocolate state, after what felt like decades or maybe only half the time it took a mocking bird to flap its wings, they had started to drown in a pool of her unfallen tears. They were never this quiet, at least never while being this present with each other and every passing second was a gift from the hugging silence. She finally took a step back, clearing her throat and said loudly, as if nothing had happened : “Meet me in my office when you’re done here. Both of you. There are some… developments I need to share with you.”
“Farah !” Ben’s voice stopped her before she could exit the greenhouse. She halted, waiting for him to catch up with her. “You’re twinkling like Christmas lights.” He mumbled the words in a low voice so that Saul wouldn’t hear. The Headmistress held his gaze at once, and whispered : “Shut up.” Despite his choice of words, the situation was neither funny, nor trivial. They both knew better than anyone that her magic was pushed to its very last limits and was now on the verge of going haywire. Runaway emotions lead to runaway magic. If Harvey could actually feel it bubbling around the mind fairy, tinting her aura with fizzy sparkles, it was even worse than she had anticipated. Without a word, he slid a tiny flask of purple swirly potion in her hand. Farah recognized it immediately. Essence of lavender. It had been years since she last had to take it and she didn’t like it one bit. She didn’t question her friend’s judgement however, merely deciding to ask a very practical question: “How long do I have?” The soothing properties of the remedy were very effective, but it also meant that it acted like one of the most powerful sleeping draughts known to the otherworld. His face scrunched up, fully knowing that she wouldn’t be happy with his answer. “It’s hard to tell… No more than an hour.” Predictably, the woman sighed. Still, she squeezed lightly his forearm, a gestured that conveyed her gratefulness, before leaving the room.
She could feel a burst of relief coming from Sky when she smiled at him, indicating with a swift motion of the head that he could go in. She couldn’t help but hear Saul’s scolding, laughing a little at his fierce protectiveness, before downing the potion without a second thought. Putting her Headmistress persona back on, she then headed towards the students who were still waiting for her wrath.
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“Bloom came to me tonight. She had a memory of the fairy that left her in the human world. It was Rosalind.” Leaning against her desk, both to support her legs made wobbly by the potion, and to help her face the weight of the information she was announcing, Farah couldn’t meet the eyes of her friends. As much as none of them wanted this, their past was coming back to haunt them, and it took the shape of a very strong yet uncontrollable fire fairy. “Oh shit.” Failing at holding back the curse word, Ben was speechless. “My thoughts exactly.” There wasn’t a lot more to say, or to do really. They were facing complications they had never saw coming, but probably should have expected, knowing their mentor as well as they did. “ What did you tell her ?” It was Saul’s voice that brought them back to the practicalities of their situation. The how. The what next ? Dowling, with her usual indecipherable tone, replied matter-of-factly : “That she was dead.” Deafening surprise rang in the room. The men hadn’t anticipated such a blatant lie. Some kind of half-truth, perhaps, but never this level of deception. “Why ?” She barely let the botany teacher finish his question, deciding to carry on with her explanation, settling the debate once and for all. “Bloom has the potential to be one of the most powerful fairies the otherworld has ever known. If Rosalind is calling to her, there’s a reason. We can never let the two of them meet.”
Before any of them had time to react, the newly found silence was disturbed by an incoming text on Ben’s phone. He quickly unlocked it and read the message, sighing loudly. “Oh come on !” Annoyance, more than worry, could be read on his face, as he started to hurriedly get up from his chair. Very much in her Headmistress posture, the mind fairy asked : “What is it ?” He barely bothered looking at her while responding: “Nothing lovage and rosemary can’t fix.” She would probably have gone with him in other circumstances, but, in an out-of-character manner, she let go and watched him leave. Before he crossed the threshold of the door, however, he turned around and reminded her, pointing at his watch : “Farah…” Then he took off, unceremoniously.
“Will you explain what just happened or… ?” Saul’s voice startled her before she allowed herself a tender giggle. His face was dumbfounded, as it often was during conversations between the two fairies. With long-lost lightness, she finally teased him: “I thought you had had enough lovage and rosemary tea to remember what it’s used for.” Given how wide his eyes still were, the memories were foggy at best. “Someone – I’m guessing a first year – was a little too ambitious on the amount of alcohol they could drink in one evening.” Sam’s responsible nature often lead him to seek help from his dad, judging the risk of something bad happening would never be worth a light scold from a professor. “What about the… watch thing ?” Sharp as if he wasn’t an inch from death a mere hour ago, the Specialist wanted to understand the entirety of the exchange that had transpired. Dropping his gaze, Farah looked at the floor, the subtlest hint of a blush tinting her cheeks as she admitted: “Remember our final year? Rosalind kept me up most nights working on re-powering the stone circle? Ben had to brew me liters of…” Her sentence was interrupted by Silva’s, who seemed to recall her time as a student at Alfea more than his. “Lavender. Yeah, it was the only thing that kept you from falling apart but you hated how…” The interruption, this time, didn’t come from words, but rather from the small empty bottle that Dowling took out of her coat pocket to show him. A cloud of sadness, or perhaps concern, darkened his stormy orbs. She could tell his mind was racing, drawing conclusions left and right and that the walls she had so carefully crafted in the past few weeks were starting to crack. Crumble, even. Somehow, she felt like she owed him a confession, ignoring the acid burn the words left on her lips. “I guess I wasn’t coping that well, wasn’t I?” With a bittersweet smile twisting her mouth, she surrendered her fleeting vulnerability to yet another heavy silence. She was trying to form a coherent thought, to say something, anything, but she was feeling more and more drowsy. Saul probably noticed her fluttering eyelashes or her steadying grip on the desk, and took her elbow not unlike Sky had done a few moments earlier. “You heard the man ? Off to bed.”
Despite her protests, he insisted on guiding her to her suite to make sure she would safely reach her bed. He witnessed, amused, how she took her shoes off and dropped them on the floor, not caring where they would fall. How she abandoned her precious coat on the couch instead of properly hanging it by the door. How she didn’t even bother taking the rest of her clothes of before falling on the bed. Harvey was right, she would have collapsed in a matter of minutes. The headmaster was about to leave for his own apartments when he heard her murmur. “Stay ? Please ?” Her eyes were already shut and breathing steadying, but he didn’t hesitate, realizing that he wasn’t ready to part with her either. Not after this rollercoaster of a day. Not after it could have been their last. He lied beside her, kicking his own boots with a loud thud, feigning a protest, for the sake of it. “But you snore, Fa…” Her voice was barely audible. Weak with mental and physical exhaustion, but lit with the twinkle of their usual banter. “I… do not… snore…” The last word was lost to her pillow as the light turned off with a flicker of her hand. And just like that, awake one second, fast asleep the next, she was gone. The Specialist settled on his self-proclaimed side of the bed and was about to give in to Morpheus’ spell himself when he felt her roll over. Her whole body nestled against his side before her palm found, once again, his beating heart. He dropped the ghost of a kiss on her hairline before putting his arm around her, holding her close, whispering : “Good night.”