Calypso left after a while and Xelqua stayed awake for a bit thinking about what was written on the board. One thing he knew was that it was going to cause him and his class more trouble. He groaned, putting his arm over his eyes. "I just want everything to calm down, but no."
He spent a few hours thinking about it before he fell asleep, his wings curled around him. With his vision as it was everything was unfocused and as if looking through extremely dirt thick glass, and it made him uneasy. Going from seeing everything in sharper details and brighter colours to seeing everything so dull and unrefined didn't feel right.
When the morning rolled around, Xelqua expected to just sit in his room or classroom to think. He figured the other professors and students were doing the same due to classes being cancelled, but he didn't account for his students.
"Professor!"
"Morning Professor!"
"What're you doing in the empty classroom, Professor?"
One by one his students came into the classroom and he started chuckling looking towards them. "I could ask you all why you're here." He smiled and yawned in his hand. "I didn't want to stay in my room so I got here to just relax, nothing much I can do."
"Well, we didn't want to stay in our dorms or the library. The halls are like a ghost town." Talik said, putting an arm around him. "So we figured we'd see where you were and just hang out."
"You're acting like I'm not a professor, Talik." Xelqua shook his head and pulled his arm off from his shoulders. "You all are so weird." He laughed.
"Says you, Professor." Calypso said as everyone pulled their chairs from the long tables to the front of his desk. "You know why we're already doing so well?"
"Because you're just good students when you're given the right things to do and not a set strict schedule." Xelqua said, leaning back in his chair. He blinked at being flicked on the forehead as Calypso said, "No, it's because you actually treat them as just not as students but people. Now you're stuck with us as friends."
"Yeah Professor, because you can have friends on campus. Since you can't exactly hang out with the guys on the server you stayed with-" Talik said.
"And the other professors here are a bit on edge whenever you're around them..." Dianne added.
He sighed looking between his students and pinched the bridge of his nose before laughing as Simmone said, "Also, you're weird too."
"Now that's just mean." He chuckled. "I know I'm weird, but pointing it out? Jeez, Simmone."
"We're all weird and have our own quirks." Eli snorted, "It's not our fault you're the biggest oddball out of us."
"Have you all thought I was that weird this entire time?" Xelqua crossed his arms.
"You try to act like a mature person, and sometimes you're really good at it which is scary sometimes, but we know you're not really that type of person." Mackinsey commented. "It was like you were made to be a teacher but it doesn't seem to fit you from what we've heard before you were here."
"...Yeah that's fair." He huffed.
"Really though, you're almost terrifying when you act all mature. It's like a switch flips in your brain." Isabella murmured, rubbing the back of her neck. "I mean...I get it with everything going on but you should be able to let your guard down and be your normal self."
Xelqua didn't reply for a moment, flexing his fingers thinking about what she said. Taking some time to answer and that indifferent look he had caused Isabella to think she said something wrong, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything by it. I really understand why you're always so uptight and you don't mean to seem scary!"
He looked towards her with a questioning hum before covering his mouth bursting out laughing leaning forward. "You're not the first to tell me I can be scary. Don't worry." He said between laughter. Isabella stared at him before she started laughing.
"Does this mean you'll loosen up once in a while?" Calypso asked, "I don't like you being all serious, professor."
"Fine, fine. Why do you guys want to hang around here anyway? There's nothing to do."
"The library is boring." Talik mutters.
"And we can't really go anywhere else." Simmone adds. Xelqua sighed. "You know classes require reading in the library sometimes, right?"
"We do, but it's so boring....." Talik sighed leaning back in his chair. "Woah-" He started before there was a crash and everyone else started laughing. "Ow..." He groaned.
"That's what you get for leaning too far back in your chair, Talik." Xelqua sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He looked up after a moment and blinked looking towards the door, furrowing his brows and pressing his lips into a thin line.
"Professor?" Eli asked, going to put a hand on his shoulder before Calypso stopped him and looked at the door herself. "It's the council isn't it?" She asked.
"Yeah. I'm being summoned. I don't know why but it's not coming from the council's chambers." He got up and grabbed his mask. "It's the Deadman's zone."
"Do you want us to go with you?" Simmone asked, looking at him. He shook his head. "It's alright. You all should stay here." He said and set the mask on the bridge of his nose before leaving the room.
Calypso watched him leave before his communications band buzzed on her wrist. She opened the chat and as her eyes flicked through it they darkened. "Simmone, Diane."
"Yeah?"
"You two go with him. It's not going to be our council. It's going to be the Listener's and the Admin's with Martyn and Xisuma."
"Why are they all going there? Especially with our professor, Martyn and Xisuma affected?" Myles asked, though he got no answer as Simmone and Diane ran out to catch up with Xelqua.
They grabbed either arm and walked with him. "Simmone, Diane what are you doing here?" He asked, tilting his head to them.
"Martyn and Xisuma messaged your comms. It's not just our council but the two of them and theirs too." Simmone stated.
"So Calypso sent us to go with you. We don't know why but we thought it'd be better to go with you since you also can't see anything right now." Diane added, looking around the halls. Xelqua sighed, hanging his head and stopped in his tracks. He turned to them and put a hand on their heads. "Thank you, but I want you two on your best behaviour...even if it seems the three councils are at a standstill, I don't trust it."
"Alright professor." The two nodded before the three of them walked to the portal and were whisked away to the deadman zone.
"Xelqua!" Xisuma and Matyn called out and jogged to him, sounding relieved. Simmone and Diane narrowed their eyes at the two of them before looking around the isle.
The three councils were a bit ways away, as well as four other people, they seemed like students. "Who are they?" Simmone asked, nodding in her head to them. Xisuma looked over his shoulder to them. "Our students...They came without asking." He said and motioned for the two of his students to come closer.
"Kaylen, Callias. This is Xelqua and his students." He said and Xelqua chuckled, bowing his head as his students just looked at Xisuma's. "This is Simmone and Diane. Girls, be nice, please." He said softly.
"Yes professor..." Simmone nodded before looking at Martyn's students. "Malia, Ryner. Come over here you two." Martyn said, waving them over. They complied and said their hellos before Martyn read something from his comms. "I don't know why we're here. You didn't have to come, you two." He said looking at them.
"Neither did you two." Xisuma said, pointing at his students. "You just decided that you'd come along when you heard we were being summoned here. I don't even know why you guys would want to come?"
"Because of us." Xelqua stated, clasping his hands behind his back, narrowing his eyes behind his mask. Even if he couldn't see, he could point out the others by their presence. "Even if our councils are here, we're still Watchers, X. That's the harshness of it."
"But we're friends. So it shouldn't matter what you are." Martyn said after reading his chat again. Xisuma agreed, "He's right. It shouldn't really matter."
"But professor." Martyn and Xisuma's students started, "Our councils may seem to deem them and their council safe for now, we cannot forget what Watchers are like. Especially this one." One of the Admin students said pointing to Xelqua. He didn't respond, Simmone and Diane stepping in front of him putting an arm up as if making sure they'd stay separated.
"Our professor isn't like that. Not anymore at least. Watch your tongue." Simmone scowled.
"You should know better than to say such a thing about someone who was also an Admin." Diane hissed. "Or do you not care for such things?"
Xisuma put his hands up quickly, stepping in front of his students. "He didn't mean anything by that. I'm sorry my students are...troubling to get along with-"
"X." Xelqua said, shaking his head, cutting him off, "Your students have a right to feel as such. Simmone, Diane, stand down. Standing up for me is unnecessary. I can't understand why you all insist on doing so."
"Yes professor." They muttered and returned behind him, still glaring at the other students. Martyn sighed, "That isn't fair to you though Xe-" He tried to insist but again Xelqua held a hand up and spoke, "No. Martyn. If they wish to see us as the villains. Let them. They'll see what they want to see. The same goes for you, 'Suma. Let your fletchling students make their own opinions on who they interact with. They'll come to realise they need the full story. Come to realise that the world is not simply black and white." His tone getting darker as he folded his hands behind his back again adding, "And for your sake and theirs, I do hope they realise it before they and everyone around them burns due to their mistakes."
The students paled and Xisuma looked between Xelqua and Martyn as Simmone and Diane looked at them coldly over Xelqua's shoulders. "I feel as if it shouldn't matter what we are for the time being. Seeing as the Weavers are becoming our mutual problem." They said in unison before turning, seeing the council members approaching.
The three and their students turned and bowed. "Council members."
"We assume you know why the three of you were summoned here?"
"Yes, council."
"So we don't need to discuss it with you?"
"Yes, council."
"Very good. You may all return to your campuses when you wish."
The others bowed before the three councils vanished. "I don't like this..." Martyn sighed, sitting down. Xelqua sighed relaxing and sat too, "Martyn, did you find the message in a notebook in your room too?"
Martyn took a moment to answer before he nodded, "The ink was still wet."
"What are you two talking about?" Xisuma asked, blinking between the two of them. Simmone and Diane scoff and recite, "The sun, the stars, the moon and mars."
"But those were drawn on our chalkboards." Xisuma said, shaking his head, "They weren't in any notebooks."
"Because we are two of the four. How could you have forgotten?" Xelqua said, tilting his head towards him. Xisuma repeated the phrase under his breath. "Wait..." He murmured.
"I am the Sun." Xelqua said flatly.
"I am Mars." Martyn added just as flat.
"That leaves Pearlescent Moon and Scott Smajor." Simmone shifted. "You two remain in Hermitcraft. Do you know if the professor's sister had anything like this happen?"
"Not that I can think of." Xisuma shook his head sitting down. "She doesn't really tell us things."
Xelqua sighed looking down, rubbing his face before setting his mask back on. "Xisuma, can you go get her? Martyn can you get Scott? We'll meet back here tomorrow. The four of us."
"What's so important about the four of you?" Callias asked, a bit confused. Diane scoffed. "The winners of our Professor's life games. First it was him; Sun. Then Scott Smajor; Stars. Then our professor's sister Pearl Moon; Moon and finally Martyn Littlewood; Mars."
"So...that's true and so is the Canaries curse?" Rylan asked. There was silence for only a second before Xelqua chuckled coldly. "Indeed, entertainment is entertainment...."
The others but his students shifted a bit uncomfortable now. "Right....well we'll bring them here tomorrow after curfew." Xisuma nodded and got up. "Yeah. We need to return now, we'll see you later." Martyn nodded and did the same. Soon it was just Xelqua and his students.
"Are you sure you want your sister to be here, Professor?" Simmone asked, standing with him.