CLACK
Ten minutes after the Headmistress instructed Cæ to get Melia to her office, the door to her office opened, featuring two students standing at the door.
Melia stood at the very front, clearly very uncomfortable about what was going on.
Behind her was Cæ, whose gaze returned to the Headmistress as he ushered the girl, closing the door behind him.
"I have brought her like you instructed, Headmistress."
Headmistress Lenolia shifted her gaze to the uncomfortable and nervous girl who kept her gaze fixed down.
She was clearly terrified of being in the Headmistress' office, given that her father was her enemy.
"…Melia," the Headmistress' tone was warm and gentle as a soft smile emerged on her face. "I understand that you are distressed and nervous. I want you to know that regardless of the… troubled relationship, shall we say, between myself and your family and even your community…"
Her tone grew more certain. "…I am not your enemy."
Melia threw a brief, momentary glance at the Headmistress, clearly not entirely convinced.
"I have been informed of some rather disturbing allegations regarding your relationship with your parents and, in particular, your father," Headmistress Lenolia began with a gentle tone. "I consider it my duty as Headmistress to personally intervene in cases of child abuse where the parents are too powerful for this task to be delegated to other staff members."
Cæ was glad he was standing behind Melia so that she couldn't see the incredulity that emerged on his face at those bullshit words. He snuffed the urge to snort at her words with dubious skepticism at the last moment, not willing to undermine the Headmistress' words when she was trying to get Melia to open up.
Additionally, she had a point.
The accused was a stakeholder in this very Institute, giving him enough influence in the magicademy to prevent the administrative wing of the Elendir Institute of Magic from pursuing him very easily as a target of child abuse investigations.
It was also why he felt comfortable leaving Melia in the institute being run by his opponent, as a director on the board of directors, he had just enough influence to sabotage such matters.
That was the reason, even if a very convenient reason for her true motive, for the Headmistress to personally intervene.
Melia remained silent, clearly far too nervous to possibly open up to the Headmistress.
She understood that it wasn't going to be easy for her while also sensing that Cæ's accusations did appear to be founded in reality.
Her gaze shifted to Cæ.
"Could you please leave the office to give us some time alone, Mr. Cæ? I might add that you aren't supposed to be in private and personal conversations between students and me."
Cæ nodded, directing one last glance at Melia before departing from the room.
CLACK
The office grew quiet as the only people left were the student and the Headmistress.
The air was dark.
The atmosphere was tense.
Not even the bright light of the Morning Sun could illuminate the mood that hung between them in the office.
"Why don't you start by having a seat?"
Headmistress Lenolia's tone was gentle and welcoming.
Melia directed a deep gaze at her before obliging. She walked over slowly, lightly sitting on the seat opposite the Headmistress, across her table.
"I understand how difficult it is to open up." Headmistress Lenolia's voice was compassionate and empathetic. "I understand how difficult it can be to bring out the pain that you have buried deep within your heart. I understand…"
The Headmistress's purple eyes grew hazy. "…what it feels like to be a stranger in your home. To be a prisoner in your home. To be an enemy to those who are supposed to protect and love you."
Melia's eyes darkened.
"Do you?"
Her tone was irreverent, despite the fact that she was just a student in the apprentice program of a seventeen-year-old, speaking to her headmistress, a powerful master mage.
And yet, Headmistress Lenolia didn't cajole her.
She merely opened her heart to the young girl.
"…After my father left our family upon the revelation of my real father and my bastard blood, my mother changed." Headmistress Lenolia's gaze grew hazy as she recollected painful memories of old. "We grew isolated in high society. The stigma for infidelity in women was vastly more intense than it is these days, bad as it is, and naturally, our own family, friends, and community cut all ties with us."
The atmosphere grew heavy as Melia's attention grew more immersed in her story.
"…The isolation, the stigma, and the social condemnation changed my mother," Headmistress Lenolia exhaled a shaky breath. "She grew… angry. Frustrated. Resentful. And yet, rather than blaming herself for her own sin and the consequences that ensued from it, she turned her hateful gaze towards me."
Melia's expression grew solemn at those words.
Headmistress Lenolia closed her eyes.
"She blamed me for ruining her life."
The air tingled with tension.
The atmosphere grew suffocating.
"Every night…" Headmistress Lenolia continued with a whisper. "…she would vent. Take her anger out on the one person that she had convinced herself was the source of her misery."
Melia felt her heart gripping in a vice.
She felt her throat choking.
The Headmistress' pained words almost drew out her own pain.
"She was a… healer," Headmistress Lenolia continued with a dark tone. "…It meant that she could go very far without leaving any evident signs of anything ever happening."
Melia's eyes widened with horror.
Headmistress Lenolia heaved a shaky breath as she closed her eyes.
"It was the worst period of my life and yet…"
Her eyes opened with warmth as she gazed straight into Melia's black eyes, saturated with sorrow.
"…and yet I overcame it," she continued with a more positive tone. "I overcame that nightmare. A nightmare I never thought I would escape. In one of my darkest days, I was given a helping hand from a man who saved my life."
Her eyes glinted with warm nostalgia before her attention returned to Melia.
"Let me be that person for you, Melia," she continued with a warm and encouraging tone. "Let me be that helping hand for you."
Melia's dark eyes watered as she broke down sobbing, consumed with emotion.
"There, there…" Headmistress Lenolia got up, walking over to her girl and taking a seat beside her as he patted her back gently. "You are a brave, strong girl."
"Sniff…" Melia exhaled shakily as tears streamed down her face. "Hick…"
It took ten minutes for her to finally calm down.
"Please, Melia…" the Headmistress coaxed her gently. "Please put your trust in me. Please let me help you."
Her tone was truly sincere, in contrast to Cæ's less-than-flattering evaluation of her motives.
Melia lowered her head as her swollen eyes grew hazy with pain.
"…It started when I turned ten."
Her tone was shaky.
"…They grew stricter and stricter," her tone was one of pain. "They… stopped smiling at me. And they… started shouting at me every day."
Headmistress Lenolia's expression darkened.
And yet, she remained silent.
"I remember the first day I got slapped."
Melia continued with an agonized tone.
"It was when I told my mother that I hated boys and never wanted to get married in my life."
Her expression darkened.
"From that day, it only got more and more intense. More and more painful. More and more hostile."
Headmistress Lenolia's expression grew sorrowful as she continued patting the girl's back.
"They constantly hammered into me my duty to the family. To the bloodline. To the future of the Nelnmont Family," she continued which a shaky voice. "That it was my duty to find good seed to introduce to our blood."
Headmistress Lenolia's expression morphed from sorrowful to one of chilling anger.
More than anything that Patriarch Nelnmont had done to sabotage her political goals, hearing what he had done to his own daughter, his own sweet daughter, was most infuriating.
She felt the urge to fly over to the Nelnmont Family's home and launch a siege upon their home estate and kill the disgusting pig of a human being with her own two hands.
"And from then on…" Melia's pained voice drew her attention. "It only got worse."
The seventeen-year-old girl only broke down as she bared her heart out as she described everything that her parents had said and done to her over the years. By the time she was done, her face was a mess as copious, gushing tears ruined her light makeup while her eyes were swollen and profoundly bloodshot.
She was reduced to a sobbing and crying mess.
Once she began telling, she couldn't stop.
She bore her heart out.
She bore all the pain that she had stuffed deep inside her heart.
By the time she was done, she was almost shivering where she sat, her arms tightly tucked around herself.
It took another fifteen minutes just for her to calm down to be able to speak properly again.
And yet, she looked almost refreshed by the time she had regained a modicum of her composure.
"How do you feel?" Headmistress Lenolia asked with a gentle and warm tone.
"…Like a weight has been lifted off my back," she whispered softly.
She looked relieved.
Just the very act of venting out all her pain and suffering was intense enough as a cathartic and therapeutic release of stress, making her feel better than she had in a long time.
She took a deep breath, shifting a deeply grateful gaze towards the Headmistress.
"Thank you, Headmistress Lenolia."
The older woman smiled warmly, nodding softly.
"…I wish to help you, Melia," she continued with a gentle tone. "I consider it not just a professional and ethical obligation, but also a personal obligation to lend you my help. I have the power to help you, and I am in the right position to help you. And I will help you, if you are willing to accept my help."
She gazed at the Headmistress with the first hint of hope. "…You can help me?"
Her tone was shaky.
"…Truly?"
She gazed at Headmistress Lenolia with a longing gaze.
The Headmistress nodded firmly with a confident expression and certain eyes. "I am endowed with rights, powers, and liberties as Headmistress, where I have the authority to protect children from their parents if I have enough probable cause of the criteria of such being met. Of course, in the case of your parents…"
Her expression grew ugly. "They have the power to pierce through that protection with their legal power, at which point I will have no choice but to return you to your family."
Melia's heart sank as her expression crumbled with misery.
"However, I must say that Mr. Cæ was truly astute in his original plan." Her expression grew appreciative as she thought of him. "Indeed, he was right. With my mastery of divination, it is potentially possible for me to gather proof as long as their abuse of you actually happens."
Her expression grew sorrowful.
"It means that in order for my protection to be truly ironclad, you will likely need to… suffer one last time."
Her tone was regretful and pained.
Only then would she have absolute leverage to get the Nelnmont Family to avoid pursuing a legal case to bring her back to them.
And, of course, end their legal case against her as a bonus.
Melia stiffened at those words.
Her hand flew to her heart as her heart rate heightened.
Her breathing grew labored as her expression crumbled with terror.
She shivered with fear.
And yet, her hand balled into a fist as her expression hardened with a hint of determination amid her fear.
"I…" her tone was a little shaky. "…I can do it."
A profound expression and eyes of longing emerged on her face as she gazed at Headmistress Lenolia with a pleading expression.
"Please… Please help me…!"
In that moment, Headmistress Lenolia had already decided.
She would go to war if she had to, to protect this girl.