"You're back!"
Dovey had jumped up from her seat and hurriedly walked toward them, but her expression quickly changed from relief to concern when she saw Y/N's trembling form.
"Goodness, what happened to you?" she inquired, but Lesso only shook her head slightly. "Not now, Clarissa."
Instead, Lesso led Y/N to the fireplace that stood in the room and had her sit down there.
The skeptical and even stunned looks of the other teachers from the two schools were clearly on the two of them, which went against Lesso's grain. "And here I thought your attention spans weren't even long enough for a few seconds. Seems I was wrong as curious as you all stare at us. Feel free to look elsewhere." Y/N put her hand on Lesso's, which was still resting on her shoulder, and just shook her head. "Don't, stop getting upset. They''ll never understand anyway."
"But, what exactly happened? You two, you made it! Good and evil, true love... it's never been like this before but instead of being happy you both look like it's been three days of rain." Dovey knew something was going on here, because she knew Y/N far too well for that by now.
The young woman, warming herself by the fire, merely sighed softly and after exchanging one last look with Lesso, Y/N began to tell of her discovery in the blue forest. "I had felt like I was being watched all along and then there was this creature following me. Luckily I was able to find Lesso in time and we stopped the beast together, but.... well how can I say. It was something created out of dark magic, I've really never seen anything like it before."
An awkward silence had spread through the room and Dovey had to sit down and think it all through after hearing this. "Dark magic you say? And you're sure about that?" asked Anemone finally. Lesso rolled her eyes slightly and was about to make another sarcastic comment when Y/N beat her to it, preventing another argument between the two. "Yeah, for sure. I worked a lot with different magic before I came here and I've seen a thing or two, but this kind, such a devilish and dark magic, it's the first time I've seen it."
Meanwhile, Yuba had come to her and handed her a steaming cup of a hot herbal tea to help her warm up a bit.
Dovey heaved a heavy sigh. "If that is the case, then there is no doubt about it at all.... it must be the work of Rafal. No one else knows evil magic as well as he does" she finally murmured softly.
Y/N listened at the mention of this name. She had heard of him many times before. He was said to be the brother of the schoolmaster and the embodiment of all evil in this world. But several hundred years ago he had disappeared just like that, no one knew about his whereabouts. Was this perhaps the person Lesso and Dovey had been talking about the other day? Judging from the expression on Lesso's face, Y/N seemed to be right in that guess.
"But if he's back, then that doesn't mean anything good for us. Then we have to be on our guard" she murmured softly and sipped once at the warm drink. It was a little bitter, probably due to the herbs it contained. Nevertheless, it served its purpose and helped Y/N warm up and calm her nerves a bit,
"I suggest we stay calm for now. We don't know if it's really Rafal we're dealing with here. Still, we should be careful and not take the matter lightly. No one has been hurt yet, but if it turns out that Rafal is planning something, then we'll sit down again and talk about our next steps," Dovey finally suggested. That was probably the wisest decision, because the last thing they needed at the moment was a mass panic among the students when nothing had happened yet.
Y/N rose from her chair and faced Lesso. "Here, your coat. Thank you, it really helped a lot." The young woman was about to take off the coat, which was a bit too big, and return it to its rightful owner, when Lesso just shook her head slightly and replied, "It's okay. Give it back to me another time. I have others. Besides, you seem to need it more than I do right now."
And of course, that was definitely not because Lesso liked seeing Y/N in her clothes.
The meeting was over and even though Y/N couldn't be happier about the outcome of the Trial by Tale, there was still some concern resonating in her mind.
The young woman was on her way back to her room when her vision blurred a bit and she swayed slightly. "What's that?" Could it be that this was the exhaustion that was catching up with her after this eventful day? Y/N could not explain this feeling any other way. Her head was pounding and her breathing was also getting a little shallower. With every step she took, the dizziness grew stronger.
Y/N hurried to get to her room as quickly as possible, although she was rather swaying and stumbling along instead of walking.
She yanked open the door and had to lean on a small table. Her hands were shaking, but she was no longer cold. And when a sharp pain spread through her, almost taking her breath away, she could only keep herself on her feet with great difficulty. "What... is going on?" Y/N didn't understand why she was getting worse by the minute that passed, but then she heard a low, deep and even evil laugh in her room.
"Who is there?" she asked, looking around her room once, but no one was there. Had it gotten to the point now that she was imagining voices?
Another wave of pain came over her and Y/N's grip on the table tightened.
"Oh no, how pathetic. You can't even stand a little pain. You Evers are truly pitiful creatures." Y/N's head shot up when she heard that voice, and she winced a little in fright as a man stood in her mirror, wrapped in clothes as red as blood and a wicked smile on his lips.
"Y-you're Rafal!" uttered Y/N, gasping a little, droplets of sweat had formed on her forehead by now. The man in the mirror had to grin a little. "I see my reputation precedes me. I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance, Y/N. It's almost a bit of a shame that this will be the last time you'll ever see anyone." Rafal watched as Y/N slowly slumped on the floor. Her vision was completely blurred by now, and she could only guess at the Evil Mage's form.
"What have you done to me?" She managed to speak only with difficulty, blood running from her nose and scattered drops landing on the floor. "I must confess... you really are a pest, do you know that? Somehow I had to get rid of you and if my shadow creatures couldn't manage to hunt you down in this forest, well then I had to help a bit with poison. I hope the tea tasted good at least. But now, if you'll excuse me, I have some things to prepare for my next move. It's been nice chatting with you, and now... do me a favor and die quickly, will you?"
The figure of Rafal disappeared in a dark shadow and Y/N was left alone in her dark cold room. She could only see the shadow flying out of her window.
Slightly Y/N raised a hand as if to try to stop him, but by now she was far too weak to do so. Lightly she crouched down on the floor a single tear ran down her cheek and her last thoughts wandered to Lesso.
Y/N focused on her magic. "Please... please work" she brought forth weakly. Sure enough, her finger lit up a little. It wasn't much magic, she wouldn't manage to cast a big spell either, but it had to be enough to send a sign to Lesso.
"Find Lesso..." Her voice was just a soft breath by now, and she watched as the faint light flew away, over to the School for Evil, before everything around her went black and she lost consciousness.
Lesso was still in her office at the time, after all there was one or two things to prepare, when she heard the soft knock against her window. The dean turned around and saw a small light in the darkness of the night, growing paler by the minute. It was buzzing around outside her window, almost as if it wanted to get to her.
The redhead stepped closer to the window and opened it, confused by the light that came flying straight at her. "Find Lesso..." It was the projection of Y/N's voice. Lesso's eyes widened as she realized what it meant. "Y/N!"
Lesso ran as fast as she could across the bridge and eventually stopped at the gates of the good castle. "Clarissa!" she shouted, banging loudly on the gates. One would almost think that there wasn't much left to break down the entire door. "Clarissa, open this fucking door right now or I swear I'll burn it down!"
And sure enough the door was opened and Dovey stared at Lesso a bit aghast. "For God's sake Lesso, can you maybe tell me what this whole thing is about?" But the addressed had already stormed into the castle without another word and hurried up the stairs. Somewhat puzzled, Dovey followed her, still not understanding what exactly was going on.
Lesso reached Y/N's room and without further thought stormed into the room, only to find Y/N unconscious on the floor. "Shit, shit shit!" was the only thing she could produce. Immediately she ran to Y/N and dropped down on the floor next to her. The redhead lifted the unconscious body in her arms and eyed Y/N once carefully, assuring herself that she was still alive. Y/N was alive, but she was getting weaker by the minute.
Dovey now came into the room as well and stopped in the middle of the room in horror when she saw her good friend lying so motionless in Lesso's arms. "Oh God, what happened?" she asked, completely frozen. Lesso gently swayed Y/N back and forth in her arms. She knew there was nothing she could do. Even if she had magic, she always used it for evil and not for good. Her magic would not be able to help Y/N and that's precisely all she knew.
Lesso turned to Clarissa, her eyes filled with hatred, a fire rarely seen in anyone. "Why the hell are you standing there useless! Do something! I don't fucking care, but Clarissa now do something already!" She had completely lost her temper, but in this case Dovey couldn't blame her. The woman managed to get out of her shock stupor and now approached Y/N as well. "Put her on the bed, I will try to heal her with my magic."
That was all Lesso needed to hear. She lifted Y/N up and carried her gently to her bed, where she finally laid her down and took a few steps back to give Dovey her space. Dovey didn't hesitate a minute longer, but started to use her healing magic.
On the small windowsill outside the room sat a small bird, dark and black with red eyes, just like the creature in the blue forest. He watched intently as Dovey tried to save Y/N from the poisoning with her magic and Lesso paced restlessly up and down the room. Seconds passed and seconds became minutes, until finally a whole half hour had passed.
Lesso couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched and so she looked around attentively until her eyes fell on the bird. Immediately she counted one and one together and driven by anger she stormed towards the window, tore it open and grabbed the animal that had just tried to flutter away in panic.
"Rafal you bastard, don't think I'm going to forget this so easily. I'll make you pay for this." Driven by anger and revenge, she began to squeeze the gloomy bird in her hand, depriving it of any air to breathe. "Dare lay a hand on her again and I will make you feel my immense anger until there is nothing left of you."
Lesso had lost her temper so badly, the bird in her hand was almost no longer alive, until the soft coughing brought the dean back to the here and now.
She let go of the bird, which flew hastily away, and turned around. She quickly rushed to Y/N's side and took the other's hand in hers.
"Lesso?" Completely exhausted, Y/N opened her eyes and looked in her lover's direction, only to see a small, single tear running down her cheek. "Are you crying?"
Lesso quickly brushed the tear aside as if nothing had ever happened. "Oh shut up."
Dovey stood a little apart in the background, but looked over at the two with a slight smile. However, she knew she had to interrupt this moment of relief and joy. "It's so nice to see that my magic worked. But Y/N, can you tell us what exactly happened here?"
The young woman now looked to Dovey as well and nodded slightly, still weakened from the poison that had almost completely destroyed her body. "I-it was Rafal. He gave me the poison to get me out of the way like that. He's planning something, I'm almost sure of it."
It was disturbing news, and Dovey merely nodded, still a little worn out from everything that had just happened. She stepped toward the bed and put a hand on Y/N's shoulder. "I'm so glad you're okay. That could have turned out worse. I'm going to go warn the others to be careful now. You get some more rest."
And with that, Y/N and Lesso were alone in the room. Totally exhausted, Y/N hung in Lesso's arms. The poison had drained her quite a bit and she was glad to be able to lean against Lesso for a bit. Her warmth and presence were pleasant and incredibly comforting.
"I didn't know you could be so loud and aggressive" came at some point from Y/N, who had overheard everything in her unconsciousness.
Lesso merely looked down at her and asked, "How much of what I said did you hear?"
"All of it, of course. I think it's pretty cute how you're sticking up for me." A slight smile crossed the young woman's lips.
Lesso merely rolled her eyes slightly. "Yeah yeah, all right. Let's not talk about it any further. Get some sleep and save your strength, you'll need it."
And indeed, it didn't take that long for Y/N to drift off to sleep, with Lesso by her side, watching over her all night long, making sure that no more harm could come to her anymore.