Welcome to Gaia! ::

Athena sighed. However, she was slightly happy: he didn't seem to understand that she didn't want it to be the full moon. The full moon brought out her powers ever more, yes, but it also made Dust more powerful--and very much unstable. Only masters could safely use Dust on the full moon, and even as it grew closer the Dust would be gaining power and become harder to control.

It was the complete opposite of the New Moon, when Dust was least effective, making no noticeable difference in magic--or a lunar eclipse, when Dust was completely useless.

"You're so..." she searched her mind briefly for a nice childish remark, but found nothing. "...difficult." Ugh. That sounded weird.

Athena giggled at the sounds coming from the office. Oh, it was most definitely funny to find out that her Headmaster was fighting with someone. And she was talking to his dad, which was also quite funny in her eyes. Mm, today was a funny day.

Smiling, she returned her attention to Mr. Enlil. "Sure," she said. Stepping back a bit, she said, "Obviously, this is the clinic. If you haven't noticed that yet, you're more unobservant than my littlest brothers. And they don't notice anything until it hits them in the face." Literally.

Stepping out of the clinic, she gave a grand sweeping gesture. "Here is the magnificent and usually overrun hallway that we're expected to use to traverse from one side of the campus to the other in under five minutes including bathroom time. Needless to say, lots of people are either late or have to use magic to actually be on time."

Hm. Maybe she could make him slip up when giving this tour. That would be helpful.

Athena shrugged. "You'd be surprised. People still like to use the halls for any number of reasons. Some people claim it's exercise, some just talk, and others are really weird and want to only use magic as necessary for homework. Then there's also the people who can't use the more generic form of magic, which means that most often they can't transport themselves. Elementals are a prime example. They're really powerful, but they can't use general magic or any of its three main denominations. Well, not usually. A hybrid elemental might, if they're part witch or elf or something." She walked down the hallway.

"These classrooms are pretty much just basic classrooms for things like core classes. History, science, math, the boring stuff." She waved vaguely at the doors they passed. "Well, except chemistry. Chemistry's pretty cool because it's a lot like alchemy and alchemy is awesome as Hell." And she could proudly say she'd been there, too, so she would know.

There was no noise from the two men who stood hip deep in a hole in the ground, but for the noise of dirt and rocks hitting the metal of the shovels they wielded. Oh, using his powers, the job could've been done in moments. All Cook would've had to do was bend his index finger, and the dirt would've come flying out of the earth. But he needed this, this mindless physical labor. He'd go mad if he didn't keep his hands busy.

They'd placed Danni, his little Danni, inside the coffin, had sealed it with a finite thump that broke his heart in two. He'd made an altar of sorts from stones, and they'd palced the coffin atop it, a few feet beside where they were now digging the grave. There would be no viewing, for nothing they were capable of could conceal the viscious holes in her body made from the sharp rocks at the bottom of the cliff where she'd taken that last leap. But there would be a funeral, a proper funeral. He could give her that, if nothing else.

He'd felt the rise in magic in the school, and had enough magic running through his own veins to realize that Ialo had returned. But it didn't matter anymore. It was too late, for anything. So instead of running for the headmaster who'd been, in Cook's mind, their last hope of somehow saving his girl, he'd tossed Sly a shovel, and the digging had begun.

He fought to keep his mind blank as he performed the task. But no matter what, no matter what he did, all he could see was Danni, smiling at him, hair flowing around her face, just before she stepped off the cliff, going to her death rather than to him.

Above him, he heard the faint rumble of thunder, and automatically his mind went to Danni. His first thought was to get her inside before she realized a storm was coming. But then he remembered that she had nothing to be afraid of anymore. She had no need to fear, no need to run inside. That's right, he thought vaguely, tossing a shovel full of dirt over his shoulder. Danni was dead now. The dead couldn't fear anything.

"The rain's going to unsettle the dirt around the stone." Sly mumured, aiming a short glance at the stone they'd already placed in the earth, but Cook merely shook his head.

"No, I've seen to it. The stone won't move." He said, then there was only silence again as Sly shrugged and the two resumed digging.

Night stepped onto to campus still dripping wet whistling softly to himself. Looking over at the burial sight he winced at the thought that Danni's original body lay in the coffin not even a hundred feet away from where he stood. "patience ... she'll be back ... if anyone can come back from the dead... twice it's her." He sighed walking past the burial towards the school; he didn't want to think of what everyone would do if she didn't come back to them.

"So you probably know all your electron configurations then, but not the leader of Britain during World War 2?" Nathan asked jokingly. "You know, I make my own pasta. Can't trust my wife in the kitchen."

Cook paused in his diggin, for the hole was almost deep enough now, and dragged himself out of the hole, facing Ialo and Ophi. At Ialo's words, he nodded once, noting the blood on the other man's clothes.

"You had your reasons, Headmaster. We know there's no bringing her back this time around. I'm requesting permission to put out the announcement today that there'll be a funeral for her later, once her brother returns and we break the news to him." He said, glancing once at the casket raised up on the rocks. It seemed rain wasn't coming after all, for the thunder had drifted off into the distance.

"We're not so foolish as to believe Ophi can bring her back a second time...Night and Sly went out, to the States, to find her soul...The Ancients have it so that it can't be placed in her body again. They're not giving it back...Seems they've staked a claim of some sort on her immortal soul...bastards. Seems the bloody bastards had it all planned out for her to die anyway, once she'd gone and kicked Satan's unholy a**...She was just a pawn, and now they're clinging to her and disappearing without a trace...Even the damned demon trio can't track them..." He couldn't stop his voice from being bitter, and he didn't try. There were times when it was best just to let it all out then and worry about the consequences later.