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There was no success in locating a second ice pack, so Ialo do with alternating which bruise it was on. True, he could have cast a healing spell, or used an ice spell, but he really liked the way the ice pack felt on his skin. He couldn't duplicate that exact feeling with any magic that his frazzled mind could recall or think up right now. That, and Ophi constantly told his students to never go straight to the big guns, start with the weakest medicine and the smallest dose first, before using something stronger.

So, that was why Ialo was reaching down to pick the ice pack off the floor (he dropped it) when someone knocked at the office door. That... was a little odd. The aura on the other side of the door was unfamiliar, so it wasn't a student or a teacher or Miss Acaria, the secretary (whom, with the advent of Seven, finally had an opportunity to go on vacation and visit her brother).

He was signing Maggie's hundredth detention notice, his legs crossed so that his right ankle was more easily accessible to the left hand holding the ice pack. He twirled his pen around in his hand and pointed at the door. It unlocked, creaked open.

Man, he hated that sound.

"Good morning madam, may I help you?" Ialo asked politely. He still didn't recognize the woman's aura, but about three seconds after he finished speaking, he recognized her face from images he had seen before in the files on other schools - this was the Headmistress of Bai Ching! What was she doing here?

The Headmaster shot up, stammering. his apologies for the cool reception. Well, he would have liked to think he did. When Ialo stepped around his desk, his foot clipped the leg of the desk - right on a bruise too. He yelped, and the pain cause his eyes to p***k with tears in the corner.

"S-sorry..." he gasped.

"Lin?" Ialo repeated. Immediately, he started mulling over everything he knew about Lin - which was surprisingly little, Ophiuchus would be the Lin expert since he actually taught her and, well..... the other Lin expert was gone. Very very gone. Oh, s**t, that meant Ialo had to find someone willing to teach the night classes. Augh, but the Headmistress of Bai Ching was here - for Lin, what was wrong with Lin? Well, again, Professor Valen had probably had something to... do... with....

Well, s**t.

"Anything in particular?"

Powers above, spare me...

... Lin contacts the Headmistress every Sunday? Seriously? But no, that was a very bad thing to say aloud. "I.. was not aware of that," Ialo admitted. He crosses his arms, cringing when he realized they were sore too, and quickly uncrossed them. "That she hadn't contacted you," he amended.

"Well, she's likely grieving..." Ialo trailed off, looking anywhere but Arielle, trying to figure out how to word the rest of the information.

Ialo blinked. He was nervous, but he couldn't show it. It's probably come out anyways, but damn it!

"Er, well," he said slowly, "There were, ah, two unrelated deaths recently... both of them friends of Lin..." Well, Professor Valen was her friend, but Ialo didn't know how close Danni and Lin were, if at all.

And how was Ialo supposed to admit that he had no idea?

"She's one of our students, I'm sure she's using her classes as a coping mechanism." He brushed aside some of the completed paperwork, and discovered a yellow paper (the color used for excessive absences) that wasn't Maggie's... It was Lin's. And for Lin, one absence IS excessive, let alone an entire day.

Ialo's expression could only be described as that of a code monkey who had just accidentally deleted several lines of essential programming from a project due in 2 hours.

"Or... not...." he whispered lamely.

This woman may have been well intentioned, but she struck exactly the right nerve with Ialo.

"Unconcerned? Well I'm sorry, but please, I'd like to know! What do you consider unconcerned? Flying back to the school the moment a student sends me a suicide note? I'm SORRY I didn't make it in time! The same night as the funeral, I lose a teacher to a horrible accident, and on top of that, there's a b*****d out there running loose with resources stolen from MY company and I don't know if you've noticed but I make weapons, and I don't know WHAT he stole! So I'm sorry I don't seemed concerned, but I've only got so much sanity left and I'd like to keep it as long as I can!! THAT IS WHAT THE HELL ON EARTH I WAS THINKING, ALRIGHT?"

Ialo stood there, stunned. Searing pain erupted on the side of face, and he found that he was looking in a direction he was not looking in a few moments before.

And he was angry all over again.

"Well, Madam," he snapped at Arielle, "If you have any brilliant solutions, I'd like to hear them."

Ialo's eyes glowed, and he nearly spat his words at Arielle. "Well then, go find her, and stopping wasting your time with a deadbeat so-called Headmaster, huh? Gehen Sie bitte, und I will whatever the hell the word for QUIT is!"