Straddling the Fence

[Tiy Lockheart]

Tiy's heart raced just as fast as the horses' hooves on the rocky road she road on to the academy of magic. It had been a few years since she had been there, but she felt like it was only yesterday that she hugged the professors good-bye. But she knew that it had been far too long and she knew that she had not kept her promises of coming back to visit. She was just too busy with seeing the world, teaching what she loved, and getting married. She smiled at the fond thought of Zeion and then the horses hit a particular rock and she was bounced in the carriage. The driver looked back at her, trying to adjust herself in the seat again and then slowed them to a trot. "I am sorry, m'am. Is a trot perhaps better? We have made good time and could go this fast from here on out." he offered her.

She looked up and nodded to him. That would probably be more peaceful. He turned back to steer the horses in the right direction and she went back to sitting up right and holding onto a few pieces of paper she knew she would need for the meeting. She had been gone a couple days and knew that they still had a day of traveling left to go. She began to wonder how Zeion was holding up. She knew that he had Jez to take care of him, but she knew that that would not serve as well as she would. She knew exactly what book to get first thing when she got to the school. She would master the transporting spell so she would not have to take this long, painful and tiring way there and home every time. She had tried it before, but had failed to murmur a word right and left all her clothes behind. Quite embarrassing.

She gasped as she saw the school just a few miles away, neatly tucked into the mountains and trees in the distance. The schools towers stretched into the air as if they were reaching for the stars above them. She smiled as her heart filled with the joy of how wonderful it would feel to be in those halls again. She may be younger than some of the students there, but she would be a professor never-the-less. She smiled at that idea. Professor Lockheart. It had a nice ring to it. She looked down at her wedding ring and fiddled with it on her finger. Oh, how she missed her husband. But it would only be a couple more days until she saw him again.

~

She slipped out of the carriage and paid the man his gold and told him not to wait around. It would be a couple days. He nodded to her and then took off back toward his home, a couple days from there. She turned, bags in hand, and papers tucked neatly into the messenger bag hung from her right shoulder. She took her first step and smiled, feeling the warmth and familiarity with the place she felt was her first home.

She entered the main entrance and then pushed back her hood of her robe. There were students in the hall and they all sort of stopped and looked at her. She did not see them and set down her bags and took off her robe to show her shorter green dress with black belt around her waist. She took up her bags in her hands and snapped her fingers at the robe that was on the floor. It flew up, folded itself, and then slipped into her bag as she walked down the hall. She looked up at people and smiled at them as they looked at her. An older gentleman in long dark robes came up to her and smiled. "Professor Lockheart. He have been expecting you. Please, come with me and I will take you to the headmaster."

A few 'professor!? no way!'s flew around in the crowd of students and she smiled at the older man and followed him."I hope I am not late."

"Oh no. The Headmaster knew it would take you three days to get here. We are just glad you came just after your letter did three days ago." They smiled at each other and then continued the rest of the walk in silence. He stopped outside a huge door and bowed lightly to her before walking away. She thanked him silently and then raised her hand and knocked three times. Her signature knock that all the professors and headmaster knew.

[Izlin]

Alone within his office, Izlin let out a small sigh as he looked over the various papers strewn across his desk. Numbers and figures, mostly, showing the mathematical progress of the academy since it was created at the ruin of Aesir. This academy, though the largest in the kingdom, paled in comparison to what once was. Still, that was far in the past now, time would be better spent not longing for what no longer existed.

As far as the present was concerned, he had an appointment to attend to, which he had received word to be expecting any minute now. Thus when he heard the knock upon his door, he was not surprised in the least.

"Enter" Izlin said simply, giving a brief wave of his hand, which caused the door to swing open. He sat behind his desk, wearing his regular grey robes, with his staff propped up against his desk in case any situation called for a quick response.

"Well then," he began, smiling warmly and indicating a chair in front of his desk. "You made an appointment to see me, I believe?"

[Tiy Lockheart]

As Tiy watched the man in robes walk away, she felt the door open in front of her. She heard an 'enter' and she walked into the room, half-expecting the headmaster to be on his feet and walking towards her to embrace her. But... a new man sat at the desk and he asked if she had made an appointment with him. She set her bags down lightly by the door and made her way towards the seat where she sat silently and nodded. "I... was invited by the late-headmaster to become a professor here..." She sighed lightly and hung her head. "I have forgotten what had happened here..."

She looked up at the new headmaster in front of her and then sat up. "I may be young, but I was the youngest mage to attend here and graduated highest in my class. I think I would make a good professor here...." She stopped. "I am terribly sorry, sir. I have just had a lot of memories rush and it clouded my mind. I am Lady Tiy Lockheart. I attended this school at a young age and would love to teach here."

[Izlin]

"Unfortunately, when the great city fell, he was one of those who decided that he would rather give his life saving students than simply escape with his own skin, for that he will always be honored in this academy. Without his sacrifice, this school you are standing in now could not have been built from the ashes of the great academy of Aesir." He said, bowing his head in sorrow. For, though he did not regret surviving through the fall, he always would regret not knowing whether or not he could have pushed himself to have saved more than he did. Still, if everyone had died trying to save others, then no one would be alive to help found the school and magic might very well have died out.

"Attended this school at a young age? Do you mean to say you were a citizen of Aesir before it fell and learned there before this school was built? That would be spectacular and mean we might have even at some point been students together. Still, I'm getting side tracked. Of course you are welcome here, to teach as you will to whomever you deem fit to learn."

[Tiy Lockheart]

Tiy looked at him and nodded slowly as she did remember his great sacrifice. She looked at the man again as he said that they may had been students together. She thought for a moment and then said. "Well... I do thank you for giving me the position, Headmaster. But I attended the University portion of the school when I was a teen. That is what I meant as a young age, but it is still a possibility of our being students together when I was younger... let's see... there was... Professor Count's Potions class a decade and a half ago...?"

Something about the man in front of her did spark her memory, now that he mentioned it. She thought about it for a few moments and could not put a finger on it, but thought that there was a chance that they could have been.