F*ta Mentor of the Free Use Adventuring Squad – My D Stands for Discipline Chapter 15 – Seeking Help

When I woke the next morning my thoughts were on Reilin's sister. I hadn't pressed her for a na after I saw what the subject did to her. A repeat extraction felt like an impossibility.

Dawnlight peeked into the room. I squeezed Reilin tight to pull her from her sleep, we needed to get dressed before Cora and Selenee arrived.

The two of us t the others outside. Cora's trimd chain-mail passed inspection and Selenee, again, was radiant. The girl wasn't kidding the day before, she had gotten ready in a rush. Today her face was painted in an abstract puzzle of green and purple triangles that matched her silks. As promised, she had a gleaming silver chakram tied into a bow above her butt.

I'd planned a whole thing involving my old "Prefect" button and monster riding rights, but I wasn't feeling up to it, not with rose-tinted spectacles hanging over my head. I'd seen what Regis could do to a girl and had just removed his outlet. If sothing wasn't done fast...

I could tell Selenee clocked the change in my disposition, she peppered with quizzical glances. Cora was doing her best to remain chipper.

The three stood quiet, as I looked for words that were whispers beside my internal shouts. Illia took a sidelong glance at us with a raised upper-lip, on her way into the building. My blouse was thoroughly wrinkled and my hair a ss, her gaze was like a hot poker in my side.

I turned back to my squad. I couldn't do this today, not under this sort of pressure. It would be a disservice, "I'm... afraid I need to apologize... we'll have to postpone today's excursion."

They didn't fight it. Selenee said sothing to Cora about a day-lily recital, Reilin just looked to with concern. As they parted, I pulled Reilin aside, and told her to wait in my office, then rushed after a judgental shadow.

Illia fumbled with her office's key while holding a cream-filled pastry to her lips. Her eyebrow arched as I approached.

I could hardly stand the woman, but she wasn't heartless, and I was desperately out of my depth.

"I need a mont, it's about your forr student," she chewed slow, and her answer was muffled, "I'm not taking her back."

"I-" retort had fled , but she caught the raw edge of my voice. The lock flicked and she pushed into the door, "Co in."

I told her everything, my failings, every decrypted clue, Regis's guarded remarks. Her pastry sat abandoned on its doily, missing the single bite. I eyed it like a starved wolf that'd just wretched up a kill it couldn't stomach, "Can I?"

"Yeah," her eyes were red, she dotted them with a monogramd silk handkerchief.

The green-black lipstick across its open end didn't slow down. She tried to process as I replenished myself, "You're sure the younger one-"

"I don't know. Do you believe ," I didn't want to be alone in this with the two of them. It was too much.

"Of course," she gulped down spit and vitriol, "You didn't have to spill on the anal aftercare..."

Yeah...

I cringed, "I don't know what to do."

"Where's Reilin?" she tapped the polished erald butt of her fountain pen on her writing pad.

"My office," I let myself hope. Illia the Darkbloom, her status wasn't thrust upon her. She'd clawed it from well-ornanted predecessors. I could walk down this hall and find eight others that harbored grudges.

"You're going to have students you can't help."

That wasn't new wisdom, it was damn near coda in this place, but I'd let myself forget it, "I- I know."

"You handle Reilin, she's under your wing," Illia's eyes tracked through her arched windows, uphill to Crimson Heights, "The girl with the spectacles, we'll tackle that together."

She marched us back to my office, to Reilin, and nudged the door open. Rei sat behind my desk, nails dug into my armrest. She registered Illia and shrunk.

"I'm sorry I missed all this." Illia said, lowering herself to match Reilin's stature.

"You- I hid it," Reilin stamred.

"No, I was too busy. You made the right choice coming here," Illia dropped into a chair opposite her, "We want to help your sister, but we need to know more."

Reilin's face went white and she drug herself from her seat, "No, no she's okay."

"Reilin," I held my space in the doorway, "None of this is okay."

"No it's fine, she's fine, I'm handling it alright," she ambled toward , I didn't want to cage her here, "What Regis is doing, if she-"

"It's just okay? I'm a grown woman, I can make that choice." Her palms struck my chest, "Now let go!"

I fought every urge to let her leave. My students' choice was the cornerstone of my self-acceptance, "Rei."

She threw her whole weight into , "You're supposed to show how to do it better, to like it, so I can keep him busy."

"That's not-" her nails raked into my neck.

"You shouldn't have gone there." Reilin seethed as Illia watched flounder. It wasn't punishnt, she'd already learned this lesson, and now it was my turn.

Reilin's storm only rose, "I shouldn't have trusted you. This can't get out. I can't do that to my family, just forget I ever signed up for this bullshit."

"We can't just let this lie..." I pleaded, "He won't quit with you, he shouldn't have even-"

She slapped , "My father will ruin you both. Now get the fuck out of my way."

A shadow pulled across her and she stood frozen in place, eyes wide in terror. A black tendril stretched from her foot to the tip of Illia's stiletto-heel, "We need to kill that bastard."