~~Recap~~
"Whether you're good or not?" Zory stated with a nearly hysterical kind of shrill disbelief. "You are really so grounded when we get home, Ozzball."
"You live with this woman?" Volo spoke for the first time all night, perhaps the first time in days.
~~~~~~~
As the member of the Nine Crowns that had helped Ozzy gain his rank as the head of training in the first place, Volo had taken it harder than anyone when it fell through. His unclear status as Ozzy's ex didn't help either. Nesterio hadn't bought any of the accusations that were ever made about infidelity to begin with and the real reason a whole lot of it always came from Matilda had become clearer than ever. The various kinds of frustration rolling off of Ozzy didn't seem romantic at all. Any knife Nesterio had brought to any of the gunfights with Matilda was now clearly even more useless than he thought.
"I sure do." Ozzy noted venomously. "Not that she ever bothers to come home much or tell me where she's really going when she leaves… Surely you understand better than anyone just how frustrating that can be."
Zory stiffened and looked between all four of the primary key players in this conversation before a small sigh and a frown that said everything they needed to know. Volo's own history with Ozzy would drive him to completely misinterpret that, making him the biggest threat. Matilda would be just thrilled and having a ball with spinning the shade at Ozzy on an even grander scale. Vitale would be continuing to keep his mouth shut about whatever he knew about whoever right now. He was obviously well aware of Ozzy's friendship with Zory and neither Volo nor Matilda would assume it was innocent.
"Can we go home now?" The nuclear option wielding man at her side piled on further. "You're welcome to keep me in the doghouse for however long you'd like so long as we're safe in the underground rather than topside again soon."
"I should have seen that coming, huh?" Zory nodded.
"Check and mate." Ozzy noted quietly as he pointed to Volo without any sort of tact about whatever game this had now become instead. "You already were not safe here, Mari, and now it just got that much worse."
There was a lot of merit to many tales that were woven regarding shapeshifter type beings and the sacred vows they made to whomever they opted to take as their partner. The new political nightmare being written off as a home-wrecker not once but twice in the same night wasn't something Zory could let fly. All of Matilda's dark and deep resentments over all of the the things that happened when Leif chose someone else over her was going to be a saga to unravel in and of itself. It wasn't as if Zory had even been the only one.
"Not a word right now, Tillie." Zory breathed softly only to relieve a yielding sort of silent nod in reply. That threw all of the witnesses who were now growing even more confused by the second into absolute bewilderment.
Whatever history had elapsed between them had served to stop the next Tilly Tizzy before it even started. Matilda hung her head in shame over whatever fuel she had nearly almost added to the fire. Whether Zory just knew her like the back of her own hand or not, it wasn't just about meddling with time or not. She was perhaps a seer of sorts or an empath that could readily rival Matilda. Be that as it may, Nesterio was confident there was far too much he didn't know about everything that led up to what he watching unfold before his eyes. It was serving to now make him even made at everyone involved. His hands were tied regarding what he could even ask for any of them to clarify at this juncture.
Vitale frowned over his shoulder in Blaize's direction for just a moment before returning his focus to Ozzy. Whatever that was made even less sense to Nesterio and Blaize's new expression made her husband tense too. Pierce having no idea what Blaize was mixed up in this time was a bad omen.
"Do I want to know?" Pierce frowned at his wife.
"Nope." She assured him with a deeper frown of her own.
"Blaize?" He asked lowly only to be ignored.
Zory sighed again and something about it as so somber it willed the atmosphere to shift despite Ozzy's effort to upend it even further. All that dark business with Leif at the end of the day was not even Tillie's business anymore in the end either. It was bad blood that could never truly be water under the bridge on all accounts. Ozzy was definitely threatening to taint what little rapport Zory did still have with Matilda at this rate.
All of the real circumstances surrounding Leif's death were better left a mystery on multiple accounts. When it was finally decided it was a mater of international security that most of the drama surrounding Zory and Leif stay off the record on every record, Matilda had been her first call. At every point that warning had been cast aside thus far already tonight, it was obvious to Matilda that Ozzy must be some kind of seer as well. He had no reason to pick up on any of what he may have picked up no otherwise. Matilda knew it was only fitting that Zory mostly went along with whatever stories were told or spun growing only more and more untrue.
Seeing Zory again in person brought the whole alternate kind of reality Matilda allowed Nesterio to believe to start crashing down around her. It was only a matter of time before he grew to hate Matilda as much as Leif did in the end.
"You have the floor, Mari." Vitale noted and jaws dropped. "For however long? Not certain."
General Vizarrio had long been their greatest weapon in the fight against seers with ill intentions and the question of him not knowing how long Zory could speak freely pointed again to Matilda. The likelihood she couldn't keep her mouth shut for long regardless of whatever Zory hoped to say was quite obvious, it just was.
"Volante?" Zory reckoned to take a gamble at how quickly Ozzy may regret giving her cause to speak to Volo herself. She smiled gently as she then looked to Volo briefly before eyeing the ground instead with an unreadable expression. "Once upon a time, I was a friend of Ozzy's mother just like I was a friend of yours. They were both over the moon when they realized you two belong together… So, just for the record? I know for a fact that the stupid bozo you're bound to has never actually cheated on you. Not once."
"Like anyone would believe that now, Mari." Matilda cackled boldly without any regard for just how many people did believe her. "Everyone just heard you call him baby."
Being upgraded to being called Mari as requested rather than the snotty reasons Matilda could have still made a point of calling her Aria was technically a win in Zory's book. How to knock Ozzy down at least a few pegs without giving away more than absolutely necessary was a bigger problem. Matilda already knew her calling any man baby was never in that sort of normal pet name context.
"I take what I said back, General Noiré." Zory continued as her eyes widened with rage no one could get at read on the origins of either. She shook her head and blinked rapidly as she licked at her lips just once before laughing again. "You are hereby grounded effective immediately and indefinitely."
"I wouldn't have it any other way." He smirked proudly.
In just about any other context, it would have been known that a lot of her pledges were usually addressed as baby. It was the only category of normal sorts of hazing practices she didn't ever mind when it came to her own fledglings. People that had just come up in the same classes often referred to others as baby long after ascension was complete. Regardless of their seniority, higher rank gave you the right to call someone that was beneath you baby as well. It was just typically a sign of camaraderie, and even when it wasn't? It wasn't any kind of slur and it was almost never an insult.
The wide but angry sort of smile that adorned her lips with a toothy sort of grin was clearly signaling her desire to make this cease at once, but he really wasn't yielding. "This is not the kind of game you want to play with me."
"Au contraire, mademoiselle." The moron who was really cruising for a bruising laid on haughtily in a way anyone who was not picking up what he was really putting down would view as despicably flirtatiously. "I will happily play whatever game I need to play with whoever I need to play it with for the rest of my every life."
"My guy?" She scoffed. "Stupid is as stupid does."
Disclosing a pledge's status to their people if they hadn't was something she had strictly forbidden long ago. Many were ostracized and outcasted without ever being allowed to explain what pledging their fealty meant as Iz had been. Her hands were tied and Ozzy knew it. This chess match for who could say what to spur the bulls for the right win was already won before it even began, but by Zory who was still pulling her punches out of respect for Trixxie.
"Dude?" She glowered at him while speaking through her teeth. "You need to wipe that stupid look off of your face before I decide to let your boyfriend permanently rearrange it."
She wasn't allowed to hurt any prospects herself on that kind of level whether they had offered a pledge to her directly or not, but she wasn't required to protect them from anyone they were intentionally meddling with in harmful ways either. Half the battle when it came to fledglings as stubborn as Ozzy was what relationships they chose to preserve vs. all of the ones they allowed themselves to be alienated in. Whatever game he was playing with Volo was not her cup of tea.
The glowing zelestial marks that began to appear in spirals on the left side of Zory's face were incredible to behold granted neither Vitale nor Ozzy had ever showed theirs. The mix of rainbow-esque colors that made up the hues on her were a special array far too many people recognized immediately.