Witching About

[The Man]

::Xavier's telepathy made him a living polygraph. A frown on his lips, that she would lie to him, he turned his body away from her.:: "Do not lie to me, Raven."

[Mystique]

Raven sighed softly. "I'm the reason this has started happening to you, Charles," She admitted.

[The Man]

::Xavier had to absorb that on a multitude of levels. The fact that she had, the fact that he had no knowledge of how, the fact that she had not told him and in fact that she had pretended not to know. His first question tended to that second part.:: "How?"

[Mystique]

"Since there's not really a better term for it, I guess you could say that I'm a witch," Raven told him, containing the urge to sigh. Aside from members of her family, no one else had ever known.

[The Man]

::That fact alone did not disturb Xavier. The connection he made, however, did.:: "You used magic to do this? Without warning or consent?"

[Mystique]

Raven shrugged slightly. "I don't go around telling people about that part of me. Just as I hide the fact I'm a mutant from the outside world, I hid this."

[The Man]

"From me," ::Xavier said, and his tone was one devoid of amusement.:: "You used magic on me without consent. How could you possibly compare magic and mutant ability and then behave as though they are different in the same sentence?"

[Mystique]

"Charles, you don't understand," She said, shaking her head.

[The Man]

"The rules either apply or they do not," ::Xavier continued. Perhaps he did not understand, but from his perspective, he knew what his opinion was, why he held it, and why arguments to the contrary might fall on deaf ears.:: "It is one thing to do something accidentally, but to take deliberate action, you know better."

[Mystique]

Raven sighed. "You don't accept help easily, Charles. And I wanted to do this for you, and for Abigail. You're going to walk again, and I wanted to see you smile because of what I did."

[The Man]

"You are acting both without my consent and against nature," ::Xavier said, and it was not a condemnation of magic as it was cheating death. He had once, and that was more than enough for any many.::

[Mystique]

"I am sorry that I acted without your consent," She admitted. She should have told him, because he was a very accepting person to begin with. But she disagreed with the latter. "Magic is a part of nature, Charles," She insisted. "It's in my blood as surely as it will be in Abigail's."

[The Man]

"Yes, and there is an inherent balance in the universe. When you give, something must be taken. I have lived long enough and do not need to have decades artificially tacked onto my life, whatever the reason. Somewhere, someone is suffering for this," ::Xavier said. If Abigail had magic in her blood, it was nothing to judge.::

[Mystique]

"No one suffered for this, Charles," She told him. "It took a little bit of blood, that is all."

[The Man]

"The universe balances itself," ::Xavier insisted. He wanted no further part in this.:: "I have already extended my life once, Raven, cheated, and I want this to go no further."