Entoma hemmed, hawed and followed Cocytus as he walked to the far end of the sands to store away some practice weapons. She glanced around, grateful again to her creator for her mask that hid her frantically blinking eyes. She opened her mouth several times to speak, each time coming no closer to what she wanted to say than before, until even he began to notice her awkwardness and glanced down at her. He slid a toppled wooden bardiche into place, and Entoma preempted anything he might have to say.
"Your students are doing well." She said, hoping to draw him out.
Cocytus was 'able' to move at great speed. But his preference was a slow and comfortable amble, slow and steady speech, and to simply take his time. He showed that again when he exhaled a breath of cold air from between his mandibles, "Yes. They will be strong, my students."
She caught the way he glanced in the direction they'd gone.
"You're fond of them?" Entoma asked, her mask hid the note of surprise.
"Yes. They work hard." He answered.
"Is that the only reason you like them?" Entoma asked, her many eyes blinking as he went on.
"No. Ophelia, she jokes, like Skana and Cenna. Happy in all she does, even when she loses, if she loses with her friends, she's okay. She will try again. Marius… he is steady, confident, thoughtful. Like Nfirea, but first to protect his siblings, not the strongest, but there is a quiet passion to him. Aurelius, he is like his mother, driven, ambitious, not as strong as Gottfried, but he works hard for his goals. Illyana is like a demoness, always pushing forward. She is very much her mother's child, sensitive, but willing to bear wounds to get what she wants. I think she, if any of these younger ones, will be the one to bring out my third weapon. All, I like, but each for a different thing."
"Oh…" Entoma stirred the sand under her feet and for a moment there was silence while Cocytus quietly went about putting away the remaining toppled weapons. "But… what if they changed, what if they weren't what you liked anymore? What if they stopped liking you?"
Cocytus paused at her question, his frozen breath came and went several times which lightly caressed her mask as he contemplated the question.
"They are themselves. If they go their own way, I would be sad. But I do not own them. That is the risk I take. They are the living weapons of our God, and so have their own minds. Not like these." Cocytus laid an icy blue hand over the shaft of a bardiche. "This will not betray, this will not leave, this will obey in my hands. But will never change. Never grow. They will never care for me. I love weapons. Weapons do not love me. They?" He extended his long segmented arm in the direction of distant voices of chattering young men and women that were already on their way back.
"They do. That one day they might not? That is a chance I take. That too is courage. Not war courage. But courage." Cocytus answered.
"Wouldn't it be easier, safer, if you just… I don't know… Keep it teacher and student, I mean it is a risk, isn't it, you don't 'need' it, after all." Entoma pointed out.
"Yes. But this is better. Worth it." Cocytus answered, and he finished straightening the last of the weapons knocked over during the last brawl while his array of students lined up in a horseshoe formation.
"I should return. Did you need something from me, Entoma?" Cocytus asked.
Entoma stepped back, startled. 'Did I take up that much time that they could be gone and back… ah, wait. I was going to ask his advice… or… did I already get it…?'
Behind her mask she blinked with great rapidity, thinking of all the things she was going to ask about herself, and realizing in a dumbfounded moment of dismay that he'd already answered everything she could have asked, and now had nothing to say.
In desperation to cover herself, she said, "Yes. I am doing an entomancy exhibition fight soon, I wanted your advice on the most crowd pleasing finish!"
"That is easy. Get close, crouch low. Come up. Hit hard. Stand tall while they fall." Cocytus answered, and Entoma gave a deep, deep bow.
"Thank you, Lord Cocytus, your wisdom has been of great help. I will bear it with me always." Entoma said, and when he nodded then started to return to the waiting students, she walked with him.
They parted ways and Entoma left the arena, at her back she could hear the clashing of weapons between the next generation of the Sorcerous Empire's leaders, and the one they called 'Uncle'.
Cocytus's advice left her quiet as she walked away, 'If I'd spoken with him first, maybe I wouldn't have tried to love a doll, maybe I wouldn't have… damn. Just, damn.'
It turned her thoughts to Inta, 'I've avoided him. I wonder how that felt? Actually… I guess how that felt would depend on what he felt before that? He seemed to like me at least.'
It was a more somber Entoma that returned to her campus apartment after a brief stop back at the tree to retrieve her notes, and luckily enough, snack on a few things that got caught in the web she'd put there.
As she flung herself into her web hammock in her room and rocked back and forth to continue to work on her notes she couldn't help but think, 'I did like that tree. Way up there I'll never be bothered, who would go all the way up one of those? A little more webwork and I may just have the perfect little getaway.'
She barely noticed the passage of time for the next few days except for one thing. 'Inta hasn't come by…' When out in the living area, she glanced at the door several times per hour. Sometimes she worked in her office, and there again she glanced up at the door, mistaking footsteps for knocks.
Finally after the twelfth time she thought someone was knocking when in fact it was just the booted feet of a heavy stepping student, she slid out from behind her desk, approached the door, snatched the handle and yanked it open hard enough to smack against the door stopper and partially embed the door within it.
'Damn.' Entoma said when she looked down at the minor damage there.
'Can't be helped for now.' She dismissed it and returned to working on her book. Progress was steady, and would have been more so except…
Her eyes kept going up to the open doorway.
Again.
And again.
And again.
"Oh for… it wasn't that big a deal." She cursed and smacked her papers down on the desk with resolution solidifying in her gut.
She got up and left the office, 'It's about that time of day now… if he's still acting as a stand-in for the other professor…' She wasn't sure, but it was possible.
So for the sake of possibility, Entoma strode to the last classroom she'd seen him in, and once outside the door, she heard the familiar timbre of his voice, steady, pronounced, measured, neither too loud nor soft. She opened the thick wooden door just enough to slip inside and she felt the moment he caught her in his red vampire eyes.
Entoma gave only the tiniest inclining of her head to acknowledge that she knew he'd seen her, then took the observer seat where she'd been the last time they'd seen one another, then waited.
Inta went on, "Destructive arts for destructive reasons are a problem, destructive arts for a constructive reason however, are a boon. Remember, nobody likes edgelords, and even Remedios managed to be a force of destruction while also being the single dumbest person to those who knew her that they had ever met in their entire lives. Don't be like Remedios, use the skills you learn here for something greater."
He let that sink in, then added, "I would also remind you all that tomorrow there will be an Entomancy exhibition outside, I will be facing off against a new professor, Professor Entoma Vasilissa Zeta. A… good friend of mine, I do hope you'll all take the time to attend, and spread the word. You won't get a chance to see a fight like this again for quite a while."
He then cleared his throat to still the mumbling of the gallery's worth of students and said, "Class dismissed."
For a moment there was a great cacophony of noise among the many races of students who gathered their books, picked up staffs or wands and made their way down to the exit, walking past Entoma either without notice or only with a polite acknowledging look. Entoma sat and waited until they were gone, and only then did she rise to her feet, leave the desk, and approach Inta who stood in the same place where he'd ended his lecture.
"I haven't seen you for a bit, I was starting to worry." Inta said with a fangy grin.
He stepped a little closer, Entoma remained still.
"It was a brief, busy period, but I'm more or less finished with the basic textbook and the lesson plan. I can build the advanced book in my free time while actually teaching the basics. It's unfortunate I couldn't be around but… there was a lot to do." Entoma explained with a noncommittal shrug.
"Sure, well that doesn't matter, you're back now and the important question is, what do you want to do? Are you ready for tomorrow?" Inta asked and rubbed his hands together with vigor.
Entoma imitated the gesture, and with a vigorous nod she said, "Oh yes."