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Bella is gazing on the school weavesite when she notices the inconsistent references to Vice Chancellor Embries's secretary. A second look shows that they're all from different years. A look at the public record of the school staff directory confirms: yes. Every secretary of the Vice Chancellor is from a different year. She'd expect he was just dreadful to work for, if it weren't for the way they do virtually always last out the full year -
and for the way none of them have any continued ethernet footprint after the termination of their employment.
Bella compiles this data. She a-mails it to the current secretary with a "probably nothing, just worried" note attached to it.
---
It is the following week when she is summoned to Embries's office.
This does not bode well. But she can't exactly refuse.
She finds one of the Walking Buddies looking for credit from "escort missions" to take her. The walking buddy thinks she's humoring her until Bella disabuses her of the notion that she's generously distributing an easy five-point assignment.
They arrive without incident. The walking buddy leaves; Bella is going to be on her own for the trip back.
But first she has to deal with Embries.
She goes inside, shaking in her boots.
Embries is a silver-haired, urbane man, with a long desk at which he sits in perfect stillness, and Bella feels an odd, intense pressure in her mind when she approaches - there is something out of the ordinary, with his mind or his person or just with him.
"Hello, Ms. Swan," he says. "Do sit down."
Bella sits.
"Do you know," he says, "no one has ever had the temerity to contact one of my secretaries on her own behalf, in a professional capacity, before. They sort my correspondence for me, but by and large, their own communiques are personal in nature. Until they are not in a position to receive anything at all, that is."
This doesn't seem to demand an answer. Bella sits silently, watching his eyes, shifting occasionally under psychic pressure.
"I do wonder why something has changed about this... setup."
Bella swallows.
"Something about the particular secretary, warier or more skittish? Unlikely; she had no traits of any relevance. Something about this age in which we find ourselves, breeding caution and far-off sudden opportunities to prompt career changes? No; the eras differ only superficially. Something about the communique's origin, though..."
Bella makes a small, involuntary noise.
"I think that could easily prompt an irregularity in a comfortable pattern. Don't you agree, Ms. Swan?"
Bella doesn't think she could answer him now if she wanted to.
"Ms. Swan. I find myself very disappointed. Given that you are very nearly a volunteer, venturing towards my attention as you did - surely there is something you have to say for yourself."
She opens her mouth. No sound comes out.
She's long figured out what she's talking to, at this point.
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subtly_artistic
He shrugs. "I might be her favourite student," he says. "It's hard to tell."
He shrugs again.
"Well, I'll find out or I won't."
"Well, I'll find out or I won't."
Celo smiles, hugs her one more time, and then sits down.
"Anything else going on in your life?"
"Anything else going on in your life?"
subtly_artistic
"That's the highlight. There's still classes and so on. Also for some reason word seems to have gone around to the nonhuman students that I'm a good person to ask about human customs."
He laughs. "How'd that happen?"
subtly_artistic
"I really don't know. I mean, maybe it started when Jala asked me about some stuff? I'm not sure why she'd have told everyone and their pen pal about it, though."
"Maybe somebody overheard?"
subtly_artistic
"Maybe. I don't mind answering the questions, although some of them are kind of awkward."
He snorts. "Like what? Or would it be awkward to tell me?"
subtly_artistic
"The other day some elf had a question about the human sex drive," says Bella dryly.
Celo cracks up.
subtly_artistic
"Yeah, so that was fun. I actually managed to avoid having to say anything too embarrassing."
"Good for you," he giggles. "Yeah, I'll just bet an elf finding out for the first time how much sex humans don't have would be super confused."
subtly_artistic
"How come you aren't just constantly hanging out at Treehome?"
"Well, right now I'm steering clear because a bunch of elves want to cut my dick off," he snorts, "but before that - I only go to Treehome when I feel like taking a weekend to do nothing but get nailed by any elf guy who wants some. Because if I wanted them to stop, I'd pretty much have to fight my way out."
"...Did you not know that about elves? You should know that about elves," says Celo. "I mean, you must've already figured out that the elves who stay in Treehome are mostly bad news, but it's not just the kind of stuff they're after you for - they also pretty much think that the natural order of things is getting to fuck anyone who can't fight you off. They cool that shit way down outside Treehome, but on their turf it's a free-for-all. Not even just because I'm a nymph."
subtly_artistic
"I'll go on giving the place an exceedingly wide berth, then. I pretty much know - although you've helped expand my knowledge on the topic - which species are dangerous to be around; there are enough of them that I don't always learn about the details of the hazards beyond 'could and might choose to make life unpleasant or brief'."
"Yeah," laughs Celo. "Okay."
subtly_artistic
"Why do such an overwhelming majority of elves opt to live in Treehome, if it's that unpleasant? Only about half of them can be better than average fighters."
"Well, there's complicated political shit, too," he says. "My best guess is - the ones who get to lord it over everybody else have fun with that, and the ones who don't aren't admitting to themselves that they'd be better off out here. They also think other species are basically trash, so maybe to them being somebody's court ass-muncher in Treehome is still a better deal than living out here."
subtly_artistic
Bella snorts. "Is there," she wonders, "an elf with a reputation like mine, but for elves?"