Word about Felicity accidentally using her newly-acquired Necromancy powers to raise poor Rudolph's body and march him through the building as a zombie had spread pretty quickly. Anymore, it seemed like absolutely anything that girl did became the subject of fast rumors. But showing Necromantic powers that she had inherited from the (as far as the Boschers were officially concerned) unknown, mysterious figure who had taken over the Crossroads hospital was even juicier gossip than most things Flick Chambers happened to find herself involved with.

Yes, it was certainly big news for everyone. But for two people in particular, it was more than that. It was absolutely world-changing. For two people, hearing about what Flick had done, and realizing the full implications of what it meant, changed their fundamental understanding of so many things. In no uncertain terms, it rocked their worlds more than… well, maybe not more than anything ever had. They were, after all, quite long-lived individuals who had been involved in a great number of important things. But it was certainly in the top ten. Maybe even top five.

Gaia Sinclaire was one of those two people. And within three minutes of leaving that meeting with the Committee, a meeting where she was able to make them admit just how absurd it would be to actually accuse the still seventeen-year old girl of having had any part in the hundreds of zombie bodies that had been prepared and stashed there over the previous century, she found her way to a private room. A handful of seconds later, after ensuring it was free of any eavesdroppers, she summoned the other woman who had been so strongly affected.

"Flick." That was Sariel herself, already walking forward the moment she appeared. Her agitated, anxious expression was matched by her hunched body language and quick pace as she moved right up to the far wall of the room. "It's Flick. He's Flick. He was Felicity all along." By that point, she had completed the full march across the floor, pivoting just before she would have walked into that wall so she could pace back the other way. "You know she is. He is. It has to be. It's the only explanation that makes sense. He was her the whole time, and he knew-- she knew, she had to know what she was-- when I said those things to her, to him, she knew who I was. She knew what it meant for me to say those things. She knew what…" The woman sighed.

The room itself had been used for extra classes at one point. Now it was empty, aside from the teacher's desk near the front. That was where Gaia stood, leaning slightly against that desk as she watched the Seosten pace and talk to herself so agitatedly. It was rather out of character for the woman, as far as Gaia had been able to determine in the very short time they'd known each other. But then, this entire situation was very abnormal, so an abnormal reaction was just to be expected. Abnormal was normal. She watched silently at first, before speaking up in a voice that sounded far calmer than she felt inside. "Yes, I do believe it's safe to say that Felicity Chambers is Jacob Donn."

Gaia Sinclaire had become quite adept at concealing her actual emotional reactions to things, as a matter of necessity when dealing with the devout Crossroads Heretics. Even then, this particular realization was powerful enough that it was all she could do to maintain that even tone. She had spent literal centuries watching for a boy who might grow into the one she knew as Jacob, closely observing any student who expressed interest or talent in Necromancy. Not that there were very many of those, given Ruthers' own hatred of the art combined with the tendency for such students to disappear. Taken in, no doubt, by Jacob's personal organization, the one he'd talked about creating.

Whatever the reasons, Necromancy-leaning students were few and far between. One of Gaia's biggest internal debates had always been whether she should steer such students toward the secret Necromancy school (she was, understandably, left unaware of almost anything beyond its existence, but there were ways for her to call their attention) so they could be taken in and taught safely, or leave them alone in case they were the student who could become Jacob.

It was complicated, to say the least. In the end, she simply did her best to watch over them. Yet every time she thought a student might turn out to be the Necromancer boy she had met all those years earlier, they weren't. At one point, she'd even believed Jacob might turn out to be Ruthers' own son, Johnathan. The man who now went by Klassin Roe. But now she had the answer. Now she knew who Jacob was. Felicity. Jacob was Felicity. Jacob was Joselyn's child, it was… it was more than she'd expected.

Something else Gaia had learned long ago, in addition to how to avoid showing her reaction to things when that reaction could be dangerous, was that one of the most important things to do in a situation like this was to not waste time talking. Which, of course, didn't mean they shouldn't talk. It meant they shouldn't waste time doing so. Not when time could be vital. To that end, her hand rose with a small crystal clutched between two fingers. A word made the crystal break, but rather than leave behind shards, the remains were a cold blue liquid that quickly evaporated.

Just like that, the room around them was frozen in time. It was a slightly different sort of time-stop than others she was capable of, a stronger, rarer spell that would, with any luck, escape the notice of the Committee. Now, they could spend as long as it took having this discussion about this new information, without losing any of the precious time they needed to actually act on it. Because once this conversation was over, there were things they would need to do to make sure that no one else realized that Jacob and Felicity were the same person.

Confident, finally, that they had time to actually discuss this properly, Gaia continued in a thoughtful tone. "Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Jacob Donn is Felicity. I can't claim to know for certain which identity she will claim as her own once all of this plays out."

Stopping in the middle of the room, staring at the floor for a moment as a deep sigh escaped her, Sariel went completely silent for almost a full minute. Which, again, made Gaia glad that she'd used the timestop. Otherwise she would have felt the urge to press the woman along.

But no, they had time now. Sariel was obviously running through quite a bit in her own mind, so Gaia didn't rush her. She simply waited and watched quietly until the Seosten finally gave a heavy, visible shake and straightened up to look at her once more. "I assume you'd like to know what my history with that man is. And why I… reacted so strongly to that little revelation."

"I wouldn't push you on the subject unnecessarily when it is clearly such a sensitive issue," Gaia allowed as gently as she could while ignoring the strong impulse to demand real answers immediately, "but yes, it would probably be best if you explained your side of things." She paused briefly before adding, "If it would make things any easier, I don't mind going first and explaining my own history with the one called Jacob Donn. To give you time to collect yourself."

At first, it looked like Sariel was going to deny that. Her mouth opened as her head started to shake. Then she stopped and reconsidered. Gaia watched as the other woman's face twisted a bit with what was clearly a rather extensive assortment of emotions, before she finally agreed. "Yes, that may be for the best. Suffice to say, I have a number of complicated feelings right now."

Part of Gaia wanted to ask why that was. She was very curious about what sort of past dealings 'Jacob' could have had with Sariel that would make the woman react this way. But she'd already promised to give her time to collect herself properly, so she let that go for the moment. Instead, she focused on her own history with the man. Or woman. Or something in between. Whatever her true self happened to be. Probably still female, but if magically posing as a man awakened any new understanding in Felicity about herself, it… well, it certainly wouldn't be the first time.

Well, the precise circumstances might be rather unique. Gaia was willing to put decent odds that, whatever Flick's exact situation was, being sent into the past and needing to disguise oneself from their own future headmistress to avoid changing the timeline, while working together with that headmistress to rescue abducted locals from an alien mercenary was probably new.

Which, of course, only made her think about the fact that her introductions to both 'Jacob' and Avalon had been in the course of stopping Fahsteth. There was something a bit poetic there.

Shaking off those thoughts, Gaia took a breath before launching into her own story. She told this Seosten woman about meeting Jacob while tracking the ship she had detected, and about all that came from that. She told her about Laein, about Fahsteth, and the rest. She even told her about Jacob repeatedly visiting Desoto during 'his' time in the past. And confessed that she had felt some anger of her own when she realized 'he' must have known about the tragic fate that awaited that beautiful place. It was anger she had long-since set aside and moved on from, of course. But it had been there. It didn't matter that she knew better, that there was obviously nothing 'Jacob' could have done to change things without… well, changing things. She'd still felt a rush of emotions when she realized 'he' could have warned her and didn't. Logic be damned.

And yes, a faint flicker of that same emotion had tried to bring itself to life tonight, the moment she had learned about Felicity's new power and realized who 'Jacob' really was. The things she could have been warned about back then, the things that… but of course, she wasn't actually angry with Felicity, or Jacob, or whatever they called themself. Not truly. Deep down, Gaia knew precisely why warning her about the future would have been a terrible idea. It wouldn't have fixed things, not really. At best, it would've created a new timeline branch, one that this version of her wouldn't have been connected to. And there was no way to tell if the new timeline would be better or not.

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So no, the truth was that the people she was truly angry with were those who kept the secret of the Fomorians away from her. People like everyone from Camelot, the Atherbys, even Joselyn herself. Yes, Joselyn must have known. If not while she was in school, then at least during the revolution. Arthur's widow had known, Percival had known. Gabriel Prosser knew. Even Virginia. So many of them had known and never told her, never let her know the truth about this world they were living in. Even… even Hecate, her old mentor, had chosen not to reveal the truth. And these weren't people from the future, they weren't people who would have changed the timeline by telling her what was actually happening. They had simply chosen to keep her out of things. They chose to lie to her, by omission or directly, because they didn't trust her. That was what it came down to in the end. They didn't actually trust Gaia enough to tell her the truth about the Seosten.

Those were emotions she had been dealing with for some time this year, ever since learning the truth from that whole situation with Nicholas Petan and the Meregan. She'd finally, finally found out about the Seosten then, from a man who wasn't involved in the decision to keep it from her, and she had been processing what that actually meant for months since. This whole Jacob revelation had simply poked that sore wound and made it sting even more. Even if, in the end, the person she was actually most angry with was herself, for having been the sort of person who couldn't be trusted with something so important. For centuries, she had been lied to and left out of one of-- if not the most important fight that the people of this world had ever engaged in.

That was what it really came down to. The choices she'd made, the rage she had unleashed, the things she had done in those old days had made people like Guinevere, wherever she was now, decide she couldn't be trusted with those secrets. A decision that was probably made even stronger by Gaia's own position here. She was the headmistress of Crossroads, of course they thought telling her the truth was too dangerous. Hell, she could have been possessed. For all they knew, she had been possessed for a long time. And even if she wasn't, her position, her past, it all… yes, there were reasons not to tell her. But that didn't mean she wasn't hurt by it.

The sound of Sariel gently clearing her throat reminded Gaia of where she was, and made her realize she had just spent the past several seconds staring off into space as she went through all that in her mind. She had been talking about Jacob, only to get emotionally sidetracked. How embarrassing. Shaking that off, the woman straightened to look at her companion. "Apologies, I was…" She moved on. "How are you doing? Not just with the Jacob business. How are you handling what you had to do to the man back there? I assume you called him friend once."

"I'd really rather not talk about him, or that," Sariel informed her in a quiet, yet firm tone. "I need time to process, and with this Jacob thing, I can't really think about that now. I'm sorry if that's--"

"It's alright," Gaia assured her. "I believe I understand that sort of feeling by now." There was a very momentary pause before she added, "As I said, I have my own complicated emotions about Jacob."

Sariel's voice was dry as she looked that way. "I mean no offense, but given what you've told me, I truly doubt our feelings are complicated in the same way. Unless you left out a part where you did your best to kill the man… at least a couple of times." That came with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I can't say I have," Gaia admitted. "Though knowing what I do about you, the fact that you did such a thing and he… they yet live tells me Jacob-Felicity is even stronger than I thought." A thought came then, making her hesitate before reluctantly adding, "Unless, given time travel…"

"Jacob is not dead, at least not by my hand or by my knowledge," Sariel replied. "As I said, I tried to kill him. But I don't-- that is, I am…" She took a breath. "I should tell you what happened."

So, she did just that. It was Sariel's turn to tell her story about her past with Jacob, from the moment her people encountered him in Egypt, by the pyramid. She told Gaia what had happened back then, including being sent a message from her later self, about Jacob being responsible for Charmeine's death. And no sooner had those words escaped her, than she paused, head tilting with a visible frown. "Huh. I think that memory was… hidden from me."

"Hidden?" Gaia echoed. "You mean you didn't remember being told that Jacob had a connection with Charmeine's death? That would explain why you didn't know immediately that he was really Felicity, but who could have done something like that? I'm told Seosten memories are special."

"They are," came the muttered response. "And mine is… ah, let's just say I should be very difficult to affect with such things without noticing. The list of people who could adjust my memory without me noticing, let alone do so in a way that allows the memory to return so seamlessly as soon as the condition of knowing who Jacob is happened to be fulfilled, is short."

Gaia took that in before offering, "In that case, I believe I know who we should speak with. This sounds like something they would be experienced with. If they weren't actually responsible for it themself." She smiled then. "I have an old mentor. My oldest mentor, in fact. I've never met one more skilled with magic, or with memory manipulation than they are. And I've certainly never met one I would trust more with something like this. If you'd like, I can reach out to see if they--"

"Hecate?" Sariel put in, a tiny smile playing at her lips. "This mentor of yours, are they Hecate?"

Gaia gave a quick doubletake at that. "This is the day for surprises, it seems. You know them?"

With a soft chuckle, Sariel confirmed, "Yes, well, let's just say you aren't the only one they mentored over the years. Shortly after I first came to this planet, I was told about their expertise, and thought they might be able to help with my mother's situation. They agreed to take me on and teach me what they knew. Even to this day, I still find myself learning things from them."

All Gaia could do for a moment was stare at her. "You… you're the other apprentice they mentioned. I knew they were teaching someone else, but I never knew they were teaching one of the very people that they were intentionally keeping secret from me. They didn't trust that I could…" She trailed off then, taking a breath to steady herself. This was quite a bit to take in at once.

"They kept my people secret from you, even though they'd taken me on as an apprentice as well," Sariel summarized quietly. "And now you believe it's because they didn't trust you."

"There are a great number of people who didn't trust me with information about your people," Gaia pointed out. "Hecate is hardly the only one. And yet… I think only Arthur's decision hurts more. I understand why most of them chose not to tell me. I was not the best person for some time, and the position I happen to be in now… I understand. But I knew Hecate for years before ever being reunited with Arthur. I knew them for years before making those decisions. Yet they still never told me about your people. They had you as another apprentice, and they never let us meet, because they would have had to explain who you really were and where you were from."

Shaking her head, Sariel pointed out, "I'm afraid you're forgetting something. I met Hecate over a thousand years before you were even born. And that was after I first met Jacob. I told them about that. I told them what I'd learned from my future self. Including the time travel involved. Enough, I would imagine, for them to check what had to be done to maintain that time loop. If Jacob is Felicity, that means he-- she… they had to be taught by you to become who they are. And they would only have been taught by you if you were here, right now. Which only happened because you didn't know the truth all those years ago. I wonder if… I wonder if that was intentional."

"Intentional?" Gaia echoed, curiously.

"You were their apprentice," Sariel pointed out. "You know how skilled they are with magic, you said that yourself. I have to wonder if they knew that keeping those details from you would eventually lead you to become this person you would grow into. And, of course, they were protecting you."

Head tilting, Gaia watched the other woman. "Protecting me?"

Sariel met her gaze directly. "You control technology. If you had been aware of my people, if you had been any more directly involved in your brother's kingdom while he was at war with us, you would have become a target. We would have killed you, long before you became the person you are today, before you could become strong enough to threaten our ships. By ensuring you didn't know about us, Hecate saved your life. They ensured you remained… away from our notice."

"Ah, that is… a fair point," Gaia had to admit. "But it also meant I made more mistakes than I would have if I'd known the truth."

Sariel offered a small shrug, her voice softening. "We all grow through our mistakes. Everything that has happened has led to you being here now. Do you believe this school is better because you're part of it?"

"I believe so, yes," Gaia replied. She hesitated then before pointedly asking, "Does that mean you believe Hecate was right to block your memory of Jacob being responsible for Charmeine's death, so you wouldn't realize the truth too early?" They had both easily realized just who had to be responsible for that as soon as Hecate was brought up. The only real question was when their old mentor had done that.

Sariel glanced away before returning her gaze. "I believe they had good reason to do that. Though I would prefer to have certain details about when, why, and where."

"Yes, as would I," Gaia agreed. "Because I doubt that's the only specifics about Jacob, or that situation, that have been hidden from us. Perhaps it's time to reach out to Hecate together, and see just what they have to say for themself?"

The Seosten woman gave a short nod. "Yes, but there are probably things we should see to here. We need to make certain that no one else makes this Felicity to Jacob connection. And that no one teaches Felicity about Jacob. She would hardly take that name as a pseudonym when she meets past-you if she knew about him."

Gaia smiled faintly. "One of the first things I did after taking over this school was remove all mention of Jacob from the curriculum, and avoid bringing him up, for just that reason. But yes, we should make certain she does not learn about that identity until she comes up with it on her own. But you… hate Jacob?" The last bit came cautiously, as she watched the other woman to judge her reaction.

"I have my issues with certain choices Jacob made," Sariel replied. "But I… I understand everyone can make mistakes. I can't say that he's my favorite person in the world, but I stopped wanting him dead a long time ago. And now, knowing who he really is, after what Felicity has become to my daughter… I will do whatever it takes to protect them."

Accepting that, Gaia turned to the door. "In that case, I believe we have work to do. But I will send Hecate that request for a meeting.

"I believe we all have quite a bit to talk about."

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