Lazarus’ heart melted for the second time that day. Mary had been snatched from her home and she needed something resembling normalcy and he was not giving it to her. Maybe this was a good time to broach a topic he’d be casually ignoring for about two weeks ever since The Letter had come. Internally Lazarus rolled his eyes. I mean really he hadn’t taught a history class in almost...he stopped for a second in his mental rant to do the math before the part of his mind that drove him from one project to another screamed “Boring!” and he dropped figuring out how long it had been since he’d taught a history lesson.

 Lazarus felt something stir deep in his mind and he smashed it flatter than a bug. The suggestion that something could kill him made the small cackling mad voice in the back of his mind that, the thing that made him such a vicious Necromancer, started laughing maniacally. After he’d squished the voice he mentally jumped up and down on it five or six more times before its flattened gooey corpse receded into the darker corners of his unconscious mind. 

“I can’t even begin to imagine what you’ve been through Mary and I am so sorry that all these things have happened to you, but you are still alive and now you aren’t alone. You have me….more or less” he frowned because he knew he’d been rather. Absent. “Look, I don’t think there is anything else for you here.” He gestured at Finch’s Loft. “Don’t worry I’m not about to throw you out or anything” the left corner of Lazarus mouth pricked up into the beginning of a smile. With a shift he slid so he was sitting next to Mary and put his arm around her. For a second his bare feet caught his attention as he wiggled his toes his mind finally realised he had no shoes on and filled the lack of shoes somewhere near the bottom his list of things to do. “So. You and I have a unique opportunity” Lazarus used his fingers to throw some quotes around the unique in the sentence. The gesture to anyone who had been around long enough would have immediately dated Lazarus to the particular era it was from. “Master Melody’s Academy has offered me a Professorship. Which believe it or not I can actually handle. I was a Doctor of Archeology once upon a time.” Lazarus’ eyes were a thousand miles away and two hundred years ago as he remembered his time at Trinity. “But now they don’t just want me to teach Archeology, History and Anthropology. They want me to teach the musicians magic. Turns out even the musicians can learn magic after they have taken up their instrument. Which I think is fascinating in it of itself…” Lazarus realised he was rambling. “The point is, I think this would be good for the two of us. You can go to school at the academy, make new friends, try and get some semblance of a normal life back. I know it’s not perfect but I don’t think this place is doing you any favors.” Lazarus looked at her “You don’t even have to take on an instrument, I’ll be there the whole time. Hell you don’t even have to take anyone else's classes if you don’t want. If I say yes the Academy will jump to agree with my terms. If you’re interested we can leave as early as tomorrow. I think the semester has just started so we should be fine. I think I can live if you’re my only student this semester if the other students don’t quite appreciate my brilliance.” Lazarus smiled and winked at Mary, what he meant was that his eccentricity was often off putting but he figured she could use a joke to keep her from falling into the black depression she was currently on the verge of. Lazarus could feel the sadness for her losses crawling through her mind, it was nothing like the other THING in there with her but it was there none the less. However it was something he could do something about. With an effort he dragged his memories of the woman in his painting up to the surface and pulled out the emotional calm he’d felt when he was with her and gently let the soft white glow of the emotion seep into Mary’s mind. While currently he might not be able to remove the entity rooted in her mind he could at least combat it. If there was one place he was strongest it was in the vaults of his own mind and that was where he held Mary’s conscious. Safe behind the defenses of an unfathomable genius.

“I’m not leaving you Mary. You’re safe with me and if someone tries to harm you. Well lets just say they are in for the surprise of their lives” He smiled reassuringly at her. “Now how about it? Interested in going back to school?”